Midnight Masquerade
by Demon Vampyre Goddess
Summary: (Sequel to Blood Lust) Victory had been theirs. However, as the dust settles, the slayers will soon find that their nocturnal world is thirsting for a new sort of blood...revenge for the ultimate betrayal.
1. Chapter 1

::comes out of hibernation:: Sequel time! Yes folks, DVG has finally lived up to her word and has started the long ago promised sequel to Blood Lust! ::sweatdrop:: For anyone who hasn't looked at my profile, I had already posted a teaser in my LiveJournal account, which would be a good place to check in every once and a while for more teasers and information to questions people may have in their reviews. I would have had this chapter up sooner, but Tuesday was my one year anniversary with my boyfriend...So yeah, for obvious reasons, I've been unavailable for the past two days and thus the posting of the fic was slightly delayed. Anyways, I'm being a babbling idiot, so I'm just going to continue on with the AN...  
  
Disclaimers: I do not own the rights to Gundam Wing or anything related to it, nor do I own the concept of vampires and slayers and empaths, nor any of things I don't own that may be mentioned in this fic...so please don't sue, I'm as broke as any other otaku out there.   
  
Warnings: This -is- a sequel, so I suggest for anyone who hasn't read Blood Lust go and do so now if you wish to before reading this fic or you will be hopelessly lost. Shounen-ai, shoujo-ai, Alternate Universe, angst, violence, rare moments of fluffy sappiness, extreme bishie-torture, some OOC-ness, supernatural elements, swearing, death, and I think you get the picture.  
  
Pairings: Present 2x5, 3x4, Noin/Une, Past 6x13, 13-5, 1-5, 1-2, Noin/Sally...possible future 1x2x5 and there's also some surprise pairings that are going to crop up after the revelations of our mysterious new characters.   
  
AN: Also, this fic is set to be roughly five to six months after Blood Lust. Thought you might like to know that.  
  
I think that's it, so...I hope you enjoy! :)

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Midnight Masquerade

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"So are you going to come back and help us?"  
  
"It depends. That was quite the tale you told me. Why did you not come to me sooner?"  
  
"Well, I-"  
  
"Never mind. So this slayer, this Duo, he is the one who is behind the misfortune and corruption?"  
  
"...Yes."  
  
"Tell me, what does he look like?"  
  
"A deceptively petite frame, lithe, long brown hair in a braid, violet eyes."  
  
"Hmm...I think I just might stop in and pay a visit. After our little chat, I think I also need to straighten out a few things regarding my son."  
  
"Thank you, I don't know how we would have done this otherwise."  
  
"Save the unctuous tone for someone who will give a damn. Just make sure he doesn't find out of my arrival despite precautions I have already taken."  
  
"As you wish. We'll see you soon."  
  
"Indeed."

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"Come on, sleepyhead, it's time to get up," Wufei smiled, kissing his lover's bare shoulder as he ran his fingers through his unbound chestnut hair.  
  
Duo muttered something unintelligible and burrowed further into the heat of the blankets.  
  
"Don't make me be mean now, you know how much I don't like being mean when I'm waking you up."  
  
"Like hell you don't," he cracked one bleary amethyst eye open and stuck his tongue out.  
  
Wufei pretended to look hurt and put a hand over his heart. "You wound me."  
  
Duo chuckled, stretching languidly beside the Asian like a cat. "When did you become such a ham, 'Fei?" he smirked.  
  
"Well, it's hard not to when you have the King Ham himself sleeping with you," he smirked back.  
  
To anyone that knew them, it was hard to believe that just a few months before Wufei had been a miserable, tortured vampire and Duo the slayer that had hunted him down and would have killed him had he not agreed to help Wufei in his pursuit of mortality. In the end, what was supposed to be a small and simple plan turned into a huge catastrophic mess. Of course, it didn't help that they had killed two extremely influential vampires and a few of their underlings in order to achieve their goal.  
  
Wufei still felt guilt-ridden about how everything had turned out, even though his sleep was plagued with nightmares of when Treize and Zechs had turned him and the pain he had gone through until he met Duo.  
  
"What are you thinking so hard about, Wu?" Duo asked, stroking the side of his face.  
  
"It's nothing, wo ai, so don't worry," he reassured, taking hold of his hand and kissing the inside of his palm.  
  
He stared deep into Wufei's eyes. "All right, if you say so," he said finally, giving his Chinese beau a smile and a quick peck on the lips before rolling lazily out of bed.  
  
Wufei watched amusedly as Duo rummaged around through piles of clothes in search of something clean to wear. He wasn't the only one who had nightmares though, for the past two days he had been roused by a trembling Duo holding onto him as if his life depended on it while whispering disjointed things. He shook his head to clear it as he got up and dressed. So far, their other partners Quatre and Trowa hadn't shown any concern, and knowing the blonde as well as he did, if it were something important he would step in and try to help out. Wufei decided to wait another day to see if the nightmares returned and then he would bring the subject up. He just couldn't get rid of the heavy feeling of foreboding that had begun to creep into his subconscious.

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"It's about time you two came out," Quatre admonished playfully as Duo and Wufei entered the living room and started loading up. "I swear, we're going to have to separate you two if you keep this up, or we'll never get our duties accomplished."  
  
"Okay, okay, yeesh," Duo waved off impatiently, attaching his gun holster to his belt along with some spare clips. "Sorry Q, I've just been a bitch to wake up lately, but I'll be better about it I promise."  
  
An odd expression clouded the empath's features but it was quickly replaced with his usual cheerful one as Trowa walked through the front door with a tall blonde woman at his side.  
  
"Look who I found downstairs," the unibanged slayer said, shutting the door behind them as Quatre ran over and hugged the woman.  
  
"What are you doing here? Is everyone else here too?" he beamed, leading her over to Duo and Wufei. "Wufei, this is my sister Irea."  
  
"You didn't bring the rest of the circus with you, did you?" Duo asked as she shook Wufei's hand.  
  
"No, not yet at any rate," Irea replied, smiling somewhat somberly. "I came into town to assess the situation first before bringing in the troops."  
  
"At least we don't have twenty-eight other women to worry about," Wufei made a face. "Or those crazy Maganacs. I've heard enough about them from you three that I don't think I want a first hand experience."  
  
Quatre chose to ignore the remark about his siblings as he got serious. "So what's the big situation that's brought you here?"  
  
"Well, that's the thing, we're not sure," she shrugged indifferently. "That's why I'm here to check it out. There's been rumors going around of a major power shift in the underground and that one of the sovereign vampires is traveling this way."  
  
"We've heard about the disputes going on, but we hadn't heard anything about any actual takeovers or of an envoy coming here," Quatre mused.  
  
"I think Wufei and I should pay a visit to Heero," Duo cut in. "It's been a while since we last saw him, and he'd be the one to ask about this mess."  
  
Irea looked from him to Quatre curiously. "Who is Heero? You didn't tell me you had a new informant."  
  
Trowa gave a derisive snort. "He helped us out a while back."  
  
"I used to live with him," Wufei added. "Heero had taken me in when I was turned, I can't say he was the greatest roommate...in fact, he's probably one of the worst I could've had, he did some pretty shitty things, but he straightened out in the end and got us out of a sticky situation."  
  
"How do you always find the troublemakers, little brother?" she asked jokingly.  
  
"I'm just lucky I guess," the empath smiled brightly. "Alright Duo, you and Wufei go and see Heero while Irea, Trowa and I hit the streets. We'll meet back up here at our usual time."  
  
Duo mock saluted. "Aye, aye captain."  
  
"King Ham indeed," Wufei muttered, rolling his onyx eyes. "Let's go, your Highness, before you embarrass yourself further."  
  
Irea laughed as he dragged the protesting braided slayer out of the apartment.

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Heero sat on his usual stool at the end of the bar, his Prussian gaze wandering critically over the completed renovation job that had been done to the club formerly known as The Marquis. Having Noin constantly on his ass and having the mood swings from Hades after he had taken over got old very quick, so he had decided to occupy her with redesigning the nightspot.  
  
Of course, the rationale behind her complaining was... completely validated. But he surely wasn't going to admit that to her any time soon if he wanted to live.  
  
For all that Noin and her partner Une knew when Heero claimed The Marquis as his, the original owners, Zechs and Treize, had been killed in a fight he had orchestrated between them and a group of slayers. Which in itself -was- true, he had been trying to get revenge on Wufei for betraying him and Duo for choosing the Chinese man over him. What he had failed to mention was that the slayers didn't kill them, he had killed them himself with Duo's gun, an act that was even worse of a betrayal than what Wufei had committed.  
  
Thinking of Duo and Wufei...they hadn't come by to see him in a long time. Another thing Heero didn't want to admit was that he enjoyed when they were with him, he didn't know what it was, but something about them being around just made his nocturnal existence a little more comfortable.  
  
'They've turned you into a soft fool, Yuy,' Heero thought disdainfully, turning his attention back to the club.  
  
Noin had renamed the place Midnight Masquerade and replaced the smooth jazzy atmosphere with a more sinister, decadent edginess. The colors of all the décor and walls were black with splashes of crimson. The tables were low to the floor with glass tops and black lacquer legs with half circle plush couches that hugged around them for people to lounge in. In the back end of the club, the partially walled off secluded area where Heero had had his initial discussion with Zechs had been knocked out and a stage had been installed with a dance floor. The lighting was even a dim red and in the center of the tables there were candleholders in the shapes of potion bottles. Even the bar counter got a makeover, going from finished wood to obsidian marble.  
  
She had clearly let out her anger out on the remodeling, but Heero didn't care. Let her vent, it was Zechs and Treize's money she was blowing and she had done a remarkable job, it had a nice adrenaline rush feeling to it. It would attract the more modern style vampires and drive out the old aristocratic bats who had been hanging around and watching Heero, making him even more paranoid than normal.  
  
The employees came in through the doors and started going about their routine as Heero got up. He went through the entrance behind the bar and up the narrow staircase that led to the flat.  
  
"Noin, Une, we're opening up in a few minutes, so if you want one last look at the place before it's overrun, you better go now," he called through the door.  
  
There were some dull thuds and staggering movements. "W-we'll be out in a second!" Une shouted back, sounding flustered.  
  
Heero felt his lips curl as he shook his head, 'Figures.'  
  
The door opened and the brunette came out, followed by a purple haired woman in the same state of disarray, smoothing down their hair and clothes while trying to look dignified. Noin shot a glare at him as they walked past and descended down into the club. The place had already begun to fill up when the three emerged from the stairwell. Noin and Une went off to the tables as Heero resumed his position at the bar counter, fully expecting another long, dull night ahead.

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Heh, Heero seems to be the expert at interrupting at just the wrong moments...X3  
  
Chapter 2 should be along soon, I've already got it started and I'm on a roll with writing, between starting this fic and working on my Harry Potter story. I love all the free time summer gives you...  
  
Like it? Hate it? Think it's a complete and utter waste of computer space? Feedback is much appreciated! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Another day, another chapter! I apologize for lateness, this was supposed to come out after 4th of July weekend, but then I lost everything I had written when our power went out, so I had to start over from scratch and rewrite the chapter. And I found out my dad is coming home tomorrow, so my mom has been busting my ass on cleaning the house and doing all sorts of crap, and thus limiting my time on the computer to write. But it's here now and ready to read! With my dad being home, it might be a couple of days before I get back on the computer to write, but once I do, I'll have Chapter Three out ASAP!   
  
Enjoy!

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Duo and Wufei stood on the sidewalk, staring uncertainly at the building in front of them.  
  
"This is the club we last saw Heero in, right?" Duo asked, raising an eyebrow at the red neon sign with Midnight Masquerade blazoned on it in dripping archaic letters.  
  
"Yes, it is. I guess they changed it a little."  
  
"A little?" he remarked. "Looks like they took B.B. King and replaced him with Marilyn Manson. I didn't know Heero had this side to him."  
  
"If he does, then I sure as hell didn't know either. And I lived with the guy for two years," Wufei replied.  
  
Duo shrugged. "Whatever. Let's just find Heero and see what we can worm out of him about all this mess." When they entered, the braided slayer's eyebrow rose further as he took in the interior change.  
  
"Well, at least one thing stayed the same," Wufei pointed over at the bar where the Japanese vampire sat with his back to the threshold, clad in form fitting black pants and a blue shirt that matched his intense gaze.  
  
"Oi Heero, what happened to the club?" Duo greeted, clapping him on the shoulder as they sat down.  
  
"When did you two get here?" Heero inquired, looking confused. "I didn't even sense you coming in."  
  
He tapped the side of his nose. "It's a trade secret, you should know that by now. Q-bean has enough on his plate already without having to cover our sorry asses, so we helped lighten the load. We've been kept busy lately, so it's harder to sneak off to come here and bug you."  
  
"And here I thought that I finally scared you two away," the Japanese vampire said dryly.  
  
"Sorry, you're not that lucky," Wufei replied just as wryly. "We're actually here on business anyway. Not that we're doing any killing in the club," he amended swiftly at Heero's withering glare. "Because we're not, I swear. In fact..." He did a quick once over through the crowd. "Are Noin and Une wandering around in here?"  
  
"No, they went back upstairs a few minutes ago to finish what I interrupted," the corners of Heero's mouth twitched perceptively. "I'm surprised -they- haven't killed you yet," Duo snickered. "Wufei's right though, we're just here to get some information if you'll give it to us."  
  
"It depends on what kind of information you're looking for."  
  
"What do you know about the situation in the underground?" Wufei inquired. "So far, all we have are bits of rumors that Quatre's sister gave us today when she came by. And those are only rumors, so who knows how much truth there is to them."  
  
Heero shifted in his seat and let his gaze flicker over the club, his discomfort clearly visible. "The sovereigns are always at war with each other. It's been quiet for the past couple of years, but the brief calm was broken a few months ago."  
  
"So about the time we had our little party," Duo guessed aloud.  
  
"It was just afterwards," he concurred uneasily. "I don't know details, nor do I wish to, so that's as far as I know. I try to stay out of the aristocratic business."  
  
"So you didn't hear about one of those sovereign people coming this way?"  
  
Heero looked even more uncomfortable. "No, that would be one thing I -would- know if it were true."  
  
"You wouldn't lie to us, would you?" Wufei asked quietly, watching his movements critically.  
  
"Of course not!" he retorted, then, after a few interested looks were directed their way, added in a lower tone, "I may not be able to tell you everything you want, but I can't lie to you, not anymore."  
  
The two Asians held a steady gaze for a moment. "I understand, I'm sorry Heero," Wufei apologized. "We just have to be certain, you know? There's too much at stake here, no pun intended."  
  
"Yeah, we can't have one of our best allies backing out on us after all we've been through," Duo added with a grin.  
  
"I'll see what I can find out without becoming too suspicious," Heero allowed finally, with considerable reluctance. "Then we can arrange a rendezvous point. I don't trust you two coming in here, not with Noin and Une hanging around all the time. I think Noin's beginning to catch on, she's been keeping a lot closer to me since the last time we saw each other."  
  
"What about Chasing the Dragon? I was one of only a few vampires that went there, and we'll have more privacy that way," Wufei supplied.  
  
"All right, give me two nights."  
  
"Are you sure that's enough, 'cause we can wait a few more days if we need to," Duo offered helpfully.  
  
"I'm sure," Heero insisted firmly.  
  
"If you say so," he shrugged. "But we've gotta get going, or Q-bean's going to send a search team out for us if we're late."  
  
Wufei glanced up at the clock. "You're right. We'll see you at the Dragon in two nights then, right?"  
  
Heero nodded brusquely and the two headed out after brief goodbyes, unaware of him watching them the entire way out. Duo slipped his arms immediately around Wufei's waist as they hit the sidewalk and were swallowing into the crowds.  
  
"Why's Heero so bent out of shape with the underground? He said he tries to stay out of their business, but he was obviously unsettled about something."  
  
"I don't know," Wufei replied. "I never really pried into his past, I asked one time and found out what a mistake it was, so I didn't bother attempting again. I liked my limbs too much."  
  
"I guess that answers my question then," Duo said amusedly. "Ah well, I probably don't need to know anyway. With my luck, it'll only get me into an ass of trouble."  
  
"Curiosity did kill the cat."  
  
"Very true," he winced slightly and touched his forehead.  
  
Wufei slowed his stride, concern clearly etched on his features. "Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah... no... I dunno. I've been having this dull headache the past couple of days and just all of a sudden it flared up and went back to the dull pain," Duo pushed the heel of his hand into the spot in between his eyebrows.  
  
"You haven't been sleeping well either, that may have something to do with it..." he hesitated before biting the bullet. "And you've been having terrible nightmares."  
  
Duo made a noncommittal sound then went silent, still massaging his forehead with his palm and refusing to meet Wufei's penetrating onyx eyes.  
  
"You don't have to talk to me about it if you don't want to," he continued as if the braided slayer had replied. "I just thought I would tell you that I knew."  
  
He remained mute for a while as they walked. "How much?"  
  
"No details," Wufei answered. Duo seemed to be holding back a sigh of relief. "You just wake me up with a death grip around my chest and you're muttering in your sleep, though it's so jumbled I can't comprehend a word. The one thing I do know is how scared and pained you feel."  
  
More silence.  
  
'Gods this is awkward. Normally he's the one chattering away and I'm the quiet one, now it's the other way around. I should never have brought this up.'  
  
"But, I mean, like I said before, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he rambled on aimlessly, feeling more and more regretful as the reticence stretched further. Duo's arms came around his waist again and he nestled his head on Wufei's chest, as if sensing how he felt.  
  
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just, how am I supposed to talk about it when I don't even understand what the hell's going on?" Confusion seeped into the braided slayer's voice. "What do you mean by that?"  
  
"The last time I had these dreams, it was when Quatre and Trowa recovered me from the ruins of my old house. They told me how some vampires had destroyed it and killed my foster family. I don't remember anything from that night, all I had to go on were my nightmares, but just a few days after they stopped completely."  
  
Wufei nodded, hugging Duo closer against him. "I can see why that would make you a bit disconcerted. Though, why come back for no reason whatsoever after years of not having them?"  
  
"I dunno, 'Fei. I just don't know."

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Replies:  
  
Nelia: Of course I remember you! I remember everyone who reviews to my fics! Yes, I finally got around to writing the sequel to 'Blood Lust'. I'm not too sure if it'll end up 1x2x5, it's the general direction I'm going in, but I'm also introducing a ton of other Gundam Wing characters into the plot that weren't in 'Blood Lust', so you'll never know who Heero gets paired with until something happens! And as for Duo...nightmares and waking up are going to be the least of his worries here soon enough. ::smirk::  
  
Mako-chan! Yeah, I'm pretty happy I started this fic too, it was driving me insane, you know how it is when your muses get going. ::sweatdrop:: But yesh, I'm afraid I didn't get enough Duo torture in on 'Imaginary', so I think I'll give him another healthy dose in this fic. Yeesh. I'm horrible. But the new vampire is the main backbone to the fic, once everything starts falling into place, you'll see. Heero will get his just rewards soon, so he won't be suffering in vain for too long! ::squee!::  
  
Well, that's it for replies...I live for feedback, so if you're willing to leave it, I'd love you forever!


	3. Chapter 3

::hides:: I'm so sorry guys! I didn't mean for it to take this long in updating this fic, or any of my fics for that matter, but with school starting and a bunch of other things (I bitch about it all in my livejournal, it'll keep you all updated on the fic stats), it just happened. I am so sorry! I hope you will all forgive me for the lateness, and I will try not to take so long with the next chapter!

So, without further adieu...Chapter 3!

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Heero pulled on his leather jacket as he entered the night outside, the crimson light from the neon sign flickering balefully in the darkness.

Now he was most definitely concerned. If not even Une knew what was going on, then whatever Noin had in motion was a lot bigger than he suspected initially. Heero had softened the truth when he had told Duo and Wufei that the female vampires had been watching him, really he felt as if Noin, or someone she knew, was everywhere he went all the time.

It was why he was so paranoid of the old aristocratic crowd that used to frequent the club when it was The Marquis. They all had deep connections to the underground, especially Noin, Une, and, when they were alive, Zechs and Treize.

And there were plenty of people in the underground that wouldn't mind seeing him mysteriously 'disappear' the same way Khushrenada and Marquis did.

Kami-sama, why did he agree to get Duo and Wufei that information?

'Because you can't tell them no,' his subconscious teased.

Heero shook his head disbelievingly. He did not like where this situation was heading, not at all. Just the thought of it made his insides cringe forbiddingly. But, he had promised and he could not back out of it now because of his own fears.

'You just don't want to disappoint them.'

'Shut up you.'

The annoying little voice in his subconscious had been driving him insane since the party incident months before. It particularly liked to tease him after the rare visitations and run-ins with the slayer couple. Heero liked to believe that it was just what minuscule bit of guilt he was capable of feeling trying to make him repent for his betrayals to his kind, but the voice knew better. Heero just chose to ignore it.

He looked up at the sky and judged that he had about two hours before he had to return to his apartment as he turned down one shadowy alley after another.

At least Noin wasn't the only one with connections, and he still had a few faithful people he could talk to without arising suspicion in the underground.

The buildings around Heero faded from residential to industrial as he made his way through the back roads, his pace gradually slowing down until he reached a large, security dominated medicinal research compound.

He knew he could count on Doctor J to give him the information that he needed.

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"We're home!"

Duo beamed as he burst loudly through the front door of the apartment, Wufei close behind with his hands over his ears mockingly. The other half of their quartet were lounging lazily on one of the loveseats in the living room as they came out from the front hallway after unloading all their gear in the closet.

"Wow, you're on time for once," Trowa smirked.

Duo stuck his tongue out. "I resent that. I'm not always late now, I've gotten a lot better about it." He flopped down tiredly in the nearest overstuffed armchair.

"Not unless you're in one of your moods to give me a heart attack," Quatre commented slyly.

"Where's Irea?" Wufei cut in, keeping the braided slayer from retorting as he sat down on the arm of his chair. "Did she leave already?"

"Yes, she went back to one of our other safe houses in the area, but she'll be back tomorrow night," the blonde empath replied, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. "It was very weird tonight, it started out like normal, but then suddenly all the streets emptied out at around three. There wasn't a single vampire or any other kind of creature out."

"Wasn't that about the time you 'n me left Heero to come home?" Duo said curiously, glancing up at his Chinese lover.

"It was."

"Huh. Well that's a weird coincidence," he frowned. "What makes it even weirder is the way Heero was acting, right 'Fei?"

"Oh, come on now, I don't think he has anything to do with it," Wufei demurred, shaking his head. "He was just fine until we started pressing him about the underground."

Trowa was by this time looking mildly interested. "So what does he say?"

"He was squirming in his seat like he had ants in his pants. From what Wufei's told me and what I gathered from Heero, he's gotta bad past with the underground, 'cause when we asked him about it, he got uncomfortable as hell," Duo sighed, absently toying with the end of his braid. "I don't believe that he lied to us though, he was being honest when he said he didn't know what had been going on recently. He's been trying to keep away from the underground and everything involved with it for a while, but he said he knew some people he could trust to give him some new information for us to use. Wufei and I are gonna meet up with him at the Dragon in two nights."

"Only two nights?" Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, I assume his contact is within the city," the Chinese man shrugged indifferently. "It wouldn't surprise me in the least."

"If you say so."

Quatre spoke up suddenly, concern evident in his voice. "Duo, are you feeling all right?"

Wufei turned his onyx gaze down at the braided slayer, who had just paused in massaging his temples at the attention he was receiving. "Yeah, Q-bean, I'm fine," Duo dismissed offhandedly. "Just tired, that's all."

"Are you sure?" the empath prodded tentatively.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he insisted rather sharply.

A flicker of a past hurt flashed briefly in his cerulean eyes before he smiled. "I only want to be certain I'm not being overly sensitive after a long night."

"I know, I know...I think I'm gonna go crash and get rid of this killer headache, see you all in a while," Duo stood abruptly, giving his Asian lover a quick kiss and disappearing into the bedroom corridor.

"He's told you what's going on, right?"

Wufei's gaze went back to Trowa as he sighed heavily. "Yes, he told me on the way home earlier, even though I had to practically browbeat him to get it out after he nearly passed out on me. I thought you two hadn't noticed yet, or he was shielding himself pretty well from being found out. Most likely the latter."

"I did only just feel it tonight," Quatre bit his lip. "But you make it sound like it's been more than that."

"He's been keeping me awake the past two days with his tossing and turning, and when I finally do get to sleep I wake up to him trying to crush my ribcage clinging to me. It was only tonight that the headache was noticeable. However, he told me that the headache has been fading in and out the past -few- days." Wufei folded his arms tightly across his chest as if he were cold. "Duo was so confused and upset when he spoke, he said he doesn't even remember what happened, only what he saw in his nightmares."

Trowa nodded in acknowledgment. "Quatre and I had been living with some of his sisters when they got the call about the attack."

"Apparently his foster parents were major figureheads in the slayer world like my family is," the blonde added. "And they made some equally prominent vampires very angry, so one night they found the Maxwell's safe house and destroyed it, killing them and their son Solo. We have no clue how Duo managed to make it through the carnage, but my sisters found him and brought him back with them."

"But why would this all start up again out of nowhere? This was years ago," his green-eyed beau pointed out.

"That's exactly what I said," Wufei sighed again. "All I got was an 'I dunno 'Fei', so I dropped it because I didn't want to hurt him anymore than he already was."

Quatre's expression went pensive. "I wish I knew the answers, but all I'm drawing are blanks."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's talk to Irea tomorrow, maybe there's more that she and your other sisters know that they neglected to say. Right now though, I'm going to bed to try and get -some- sleep before our next shift."

"Sounds good, good night Wufei."

The Asian waved as he walked back into the hallway to his and Duo's bedroom. He paused in the threshold, watching his longhaired lover, who was wrapped with an iron grip around Wufei's pillow as a substitute for his missing human teddy bear.

Wufei sat on the edge of the bed, caressing his slender fingers down Duo's pained face, smiling slightly as the pain lessened and he leaned into the warm touch. He kissed his forehead lightly before standing back up and stripping to his boxers, then gently saved his pillow from certain strangling. Wufei crawled under the covers and prepared for another restless day as Duo reattached himself to his human teddy bear.

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Heero squinted up at the lightening sky as he made his way off the compound property and out onto the empty streets. He could still make it back to the apartment before the sun rose, he'd just have to be quick about it. He hadn't realized that what he thought would be a short visit to Doctor J would end up taking so long.

J had not had any good news for him at all. If anything, he was feeling even worse about the whole situation now that he knew what was going on. Why Noin had called this person...he would rather wait for the sun to rise and burn to dust than to have revenge exacted upon him by Noin's confidant.

'She knows how we feel about each other...it's probably less than I deserve for my punishment, but I most certainly did not expect her to go this low,' he thought darkly.

Heero suddenly stopped cold in his tracks, his cobalt eyes darting around, searching for the intense presence that surrounded him as if summoned by the mere thought of its existence.

What little bit of heart he had plummeted to the ground as his gaze was met by a chilling, ice blue one.

"Odin."

"Why yes Heero, you do not sound too pleased to see me. I wonder why? I think we need to have a chat, you and I..."

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Not so bad, ne? :)

Reviews!

Nelia: Yes, I know, so many questions, so little time...some of your questions are answered in this chapter, but many more pop up also. This story is going to be full of plot twists and secrets, it'll never be boring!

Mako-chan: Yeah, I can be declared clinically insane. ::sweatdrop:: I'm just a sick, sadistic person, what can you say? But yeah, I'm happy my dad's back and he's not going anywhere any time soon, and I apologize for taking so long to update, but what with school and getting teeth pulled and braces and designing sets for my school and all sorts of insanity, I haven't even had five minutes alone just to -breathe- for over a month now. sigh But yes, soon more questions will be answered and many more will arise! Fun, fun, fun...

Lex: I apologize for the long delay in updates! I'm glad you enjoy my story!

KDA: Yaay! One of meh fave reviewers has returned! glomp Yesh, I -finally- started the sequel, and I'm sorry for the long delays in updates, but real life is mad crazy, you know? Like I told Mako-chan, for over the past month I haven't even had five minutes alone to myself just to breathe, let alone do anything else, I slammed this chapter down in one night when I just happened to not have very much homework (thank Goddess). I'm trying to be quicker about it, so I apologize! ;-;

Avenged Suffering: Another of meh fave reviewers!!! Yes, I finally started the sequel I said I would write like a year ago. ::sweatdrop:: Took a year, but it's getting there! Now it's just finding time to continue writing it...sigh But yesh, I do believe we'll actually make it to the 1x2x5 in this fic, doing the slow build up process, ya know what I mean? But everything else will be explained soon!

Dannii Malfoy: Don't worry! I never give up on my fics, it's just finding time to write that's the problem! I'm glad you're enjoying my mad craziness, it's only going to get better from here!

By the way...I started a website the other day when I got bored in Web Design class, it's pretty crappy right now cause I slapped it together in like 5 minutes before the bell rang, but it's now my homepage on my author profile and on the website you'll find links to all my important stuff. Eventually I'll take down the links and be able to make it into an actual archive for my stuff so I don't have so many different web hosts for fics and my art and all that good stuff, it'll all be on one website! But that probably won't happen until Thanksgiving or Christmas break, which ever I get the time to sit and be able to work out all the HTML coding and stuff to get the website put together.

Feed this authoress' ego and leave me a review! All comments accepted...flames will be used to roast my marshmallows. ::smirk::


	4. Chapter 4

(comes out of a VERY long hibernation) I am so sorry everybody! I really apologize for making everyone wait for -months- for an update on MM! I had started this chapter during Christmas break, then as soon as school started back up it was homework and college applications to fill out and scholarship forms and exams and internal assessment projects and working in the photography lab and the theater nonstop...I haven't had hardly any time for myself, let alone time to write. (sigh) Good news is that I graduate soon, and the work load is dropping off, all I really have to worry about is getting scholarship stuff together so I can afford to go to college this fall without being in debt for the rest of my life. X.x;; I got accepted into International Academy of Design & Technology in Tampa! Yaayness! But yes, as you can see, very busy. (sigh) I'm still busy, but at least not as much. I'll be 18 in eleven days! I have all Spring Break to celebrate, and I'll be using all that free time to whatever I want, so look out for another update (hopefully) in about 2 weeks.

But yes, without further procrastination...Chapter 4!

* * *

"How long are we going to keep this charade up?"

Quatre sighed, sitting heavily down onto their king-sized four poster bed as Trowa slid in behind his blonde haired lover and started massaging his tense shoulders.

"Duo knows nothing of any of this. To have given in to Wufei's incessant questioning and telling him what is really going on and have him go running back to Duo and spilling everything we've been working hard to protect him from...he would hate us Trowa."

"However, this situation would be the perfect time -to- tell him," Trowa pointed out. "If he's acting up again, it has to mean they've returned, and we need to tell him what's going on before they have the opportunity to get their hands on him and tell him themselves. -That- would be worse."

The empath paled considerably. "Much worse. I have never liked keeping this act up...But...How can we possibly tell Duo? He is bound to get into one of his rages and run out, and that would give them the -perfect- opportunity to do as you suggested."

Quatre leaned back into Trowa's embrace, the cold knot of foreboding hanging like an unbearable weight in his stomach. "Either way, we will most likely lose him forever."

"We took the risk of becoming too attached when we accepted the mission to protect Duo," the green-eyed slayer replied quietly. "We knew it would come down to this someday, but we still got attached."

"I didn't know it could hurt this much..." Quatre's hand went over his heart.

"I know, my angel, I know...but maybe..." Trowa trailed off thoughtfully. "We do have Wufei. We didn't anticipate anybody like him coming along, or Duo falling in love. Maybe Wufei will be Duo's saving grace in the end. We can tell Duo everything, and Wufei can keep him from running off and doing anything too brash. Or at least follow him and keep him safe. They are fiercely loyal to each other."

A brief flicker of hope came into the empath's expression. "We can only hope so."

The flicker of hope died as soon as his thoughts returned to the matter, returning instantly to a visage of misery.

"But Trowa, if the coven has returned and the Lady is here...how can we possibly tell Duo that he is on the verge of being turned into one of the creatures he detests and kills every night? How can we tell him he is tainted by Her?"

His unibanged lover tightened his embrace. "Don't even think about it Quatre. Wufei did want to talk to Irea and the others...so we can set it up so that we didn't know and they're just now telling us for obvious safety reasons. They'll help us make sure that Duo is safe."

"I hope so. I'll go call Irea."

* * *

"Quinze, is everything locked up for the night?" Une asked as she walked up to the bar. The silver haired man sitting behind the counter nodded silently as he stood and walked around, leaving a quietly as he had answered.

The grand reopening of Midnight Masquerade had been more phenomenal then either herself or Noin had imagined; she had had to literally threaten with death by sunlight if they lingered too long to get the crowds to leave. Une gave the club one more glance before entering the stairwell behind the bar.

Unfortunately, she had been unable to celebrate the success she shared with her partner, because she hadn't seen Noin since Heero had left early in the evening. Her conversation with the arrogant Japanese vampire had made the heavy weight in her stomach worse, because for Heero to unreservedly show his concern over a situation, it meant there was some serious trouble. Mixing that with the ill feelings she already had over the secretiveness of Noin the past few months...Well, it makes a woman really question her relationship.

As if to serve as a catalyst to her turbulent emotions and the entire situation, she opened the door to the flat she shared with Noin and walked right into the middle of an apocalypse waiting to happen. It was the entourage of one of the greatest sovereigns in the underground, with her lover sitting at the Lady's feet like an obedient dog.

Noin smiled brilliantly in response to her look of pure shock, her eyes gleaming slightly with a touch of madness.

"Isn't this wonderful, Middie? Dorothy has come to help us get revenge for Sally, Milliardo, and Treize's deaths."

The aristocratic blond woman petting Noin's purple hair as she spoke stared coldly at Une for a moment before a disturbing smirk settled onto her pale features.

"A new war has begun. No one is safe until everyone who has betrayed and killed our kind is annihilated, vampire and slayer alike. I will rise the entire underground world if I must. It is time for us to collect our rightful retribution."

* * *

Wufei awoke to the feel of warm hands sliding down his bare chest, fingertips lingering teasingly over his nipples while everything else was a mixture of smooth skin and silky waves of hair. Exquisite pleasure.

"Mmm...I love it when you wake me up like this, wo ai," he mumbled, his voice still thick with sleep.

He opened his eyes as the caresses suddenly stopped and was met with the horrifying sight of Duo hovering above him nailed to the ceiling like the bloody Christ, tears of blood running down his cheeks, gaping wounds slashed into his once flawless body. His screams flooded all other senses, shattering the room like delicate glass as he was swallowed into darkness.

Wufei practically flew out of the bed as he woke up for real, his heart pounding painfully against his ribcage as he gasped for air. Sweat drenched him as he pushed his wet hair out of his face and turned his head to make sure Duo was still lying there next to him, which he was, death gripping his pillow in some semblance of slumber.

He rolled onto his side and pulled his braided lover to his chest in desperate relief, willing his racing heart to calm as he placed feather light kisses all over Duo's face and whispered 'I love you' after each kiss.

'Gods, I pray that I never, ever have a dream like that again,' Wufei thought, feeling sick to his stomach. Once he regained control of his body, he rationalized the dream with the stress of the last few days and tried to ignore the nagging dissent in the back of his mind that wanted to make him believe it was a premonition of things to come.

Duo stirred, his tense muscles relaxing in the warmth of Wufei's embrace as he snuggled in closer. "Please don't tell me it's time to get up already," he said sleepily.

Wufei glanced over at the clock. 'Damn.'

"Yes, unfortunately, it is. But we don't have to get up until Quatre or Trowa comes in and forces us up, if you don't want to."

"Good, I like the sounds of that."

"I love you, Duo."

He looked up at the Asian with a gentle smile before he went back to sleep. "I love you too, 'Fei."

'Please gods, let it just remain a dream...'

* * *

(hides) Horrible, I know. It's been so long since my fingers have sat at my keyboard to write something I actually want to write. Not another essay or experimental write-up or school notes...just pure fanfiction. (purr) I hope you enjoyed it! It'll only get better as I get back in my groove and write more! So many more ideas and horrible cliffhangers have begun to formulate in my mind...I don't think I can write a story that'll get as twisted as Midnight Masquerade will be by the time I'm finished with it. Unless I do a sequel to Fatal Asphyxiation...

Hmmm... (pondering)

Anyway! Reviews!

ZmajGoddess: Heh, well you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happened to Heero. I kinda forgot about him this chapter. (sweatdrop) I'm glad you enjoy my story!

Avenged Suffering: LoL! Yes, any mention of yaoi goodness and I stop paying attention to details too. I know these chapters are little short, but it's the best I can squeeze with my time constraints and lack of motivation to write. After spending 8 hours every night for the past three months doing nothing but type essays and experimental write-ups and resumes and crap...there's just no want to sit at the computer even longer to write on a fic. As much as I would have rather spent the 8 hours writing on my fics...but now that things are dying down, then I'll be writing more and more and putting up some fanart on my website and stuff too, so I'll get back into the swing of things. Heero will come back into the next chapter, hopefully. It all depends on what I'm inspired to write about in the chapter, he might not even show up until his meeting with Wufei and Duo at the Dragon...where ever the plot goes, I write. I am really sorry it took so long to update!

Nelia: Heh, Duo will be surviving a LOT more than just having his foster family killed in front of him. Wait until you hear the WHOLE story behind the attack. And as for Heero...I'm working on that one. I can't say anything because it'll ruin all of my fun surprises and cliffhangers! I'm glad you enjoy my story though!

Mako-chan: I know exactly how you feel! I really apologize for taking so long to update! I just blinked and all of a sudden it's March and my last update was back in November or December...I am truly a horrid person. (cries) But I should be updating sooner now! As for the fic comments...Noin is only going downhill from here. And as for Heero, I can't give away what J told him, that's why there was no scene there with him! I can't give away a good portion of the plot! And now everyone knows it wasn't only Odin that Noin called, it's also Dorothy! (evil cackle) Oh the horrible evilness of it all...Trowa and Q-bean aren't backseat characters, on the contrary, they've got a huge part in the twistedness of the fic! And now obviously everyone knows why their conversation was cut short. But yes, a lot of things are purposely unexplained, it all has a purpose! There is a method to this madness that I have! Buwahahaha! And as a final note...There -will- be 1x2x5, I promise you! But first they must suffer more and I must unveil the mystery surrounding Heero and all that good stuff.

LadyDragonKnight: I'm glad you enjoy the story!

W00t! Now if you would be so kind as to leave me a review...it would be greatly appreciated! I know I don't deserve it, because I took such an ungodly time updating...

And as always, all flames will be used to roast my marshmallows.


	5. Chapter 5

Yaay! Another chapter! I know I promised this one sooner than this, however, my computer's hard drive decided to crap out on me (again), and with not having the time to sit for three days straight trying to reconfigure the hard drive, it had to wait until after graduation. But here it is! In all its glory, and I made it a bit longer and all sorts of fun stuff to make up for the delay!

Enjoy!

* * *

Heero had risen that evening with a tight, cold knot of apprehension in his chest.

Odin had not spoken a word to him on the way to his underground apartment, despite his ominous greeting. He had decided to make Heero wait until after they rested to tell him what he was doing in the city, in the typical nerve racking fashion of the elitist vampires. Odin reminded him very much of Lestat, a theatrical, melodramatic vampire he had read about in a novel by some human named Anne Rice.

Poor humans didn't know just how close to the horrific truth they actually were when they wrote their romantic fantasies of death and intrigue.

Waiting uncomfortably in the living room, Heero immediately tensed as Odin came out of what had used to be Wufei's room. "So are you going to tell me what in the hell is going on now?" he demanded immediately, trying to mask his unease. "Why did Noin call you here?"

"Lucrezia didn't call me here," Odin said, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Now Heero was even more confused. "But J told me just last night-"

"He was mistaken. You of all people should know I don't deal with the petty affairs of the underworld," he smiled. "Especially since I really wasn't fond of Treize or Milliardo, but your mother threw a fit about it. I only followed her here to make sure she doesn't get herself into any trouble and thought I would stop in and see you. I haven't seen you since you abandoned the family."

The last few words in his reply went unheard as Heero sat there shell shocked beyond belief, the sick knot in his chest clenching painfully.

'If this is what it's like to have a heart attack, then I pity mortals.'

"She's going to kill me..." he muttered aloud.

Odin laughed heartily. "Oh, come on now, you really don't think that I would allow your mother to kill our only son, do you? And it's not like -you- were the one who killed them, right?" he chuckled amusedly. "Then you -would- be in quite the bad spot, caught in the worst act of betrayal."

"Yeah...right." If Heero could have shriveled up into a ball and disappeared, he would have at that moment. "Listen, I have to go to the club and make sure everything is in check before we open tonight, so..."

He had to go. He had to find a phone and call Duo and Wufei. Two days was too long of a wait to see them, who knows what his parents could do to them by then?

"That's fine, that's where Dorothy is staying anyway, I'll just follow you," Odin smiled again.

'Fuck.' Heero swore mentally as he threw on his leather jacket and walked out of the apartment, not even pausing to check if his father was following behind him.

Now his mind was working overtime. There was no way to escape seeing his mother, especially now that Odin had found him. And to have Noin harbor her upstairs in the Midnight Masquerade...

'Fuck.'

He could not talk his way out of going to the club and finding an alternative method of communication because he was stuck with his father, who was expecting him to lead him straight to their destination.

Maybe...maybe she would not be downstairs yet. If he hurried up, he could get there and use what precious little time he had to call the slayers and warn them.

'No, that wouldn't work. Dorothy is too much of a socialite to skip greeting the first arrivals, and she'll want to get acquainted with everyone on the staff,' Heero thought irritably, his hope slowly going down the drain as he mentally repeated the word 'Fuck' over and over again.

The nightspot had not open for business yet when they finally got there, with Heero all but kicking the double doors in. "Noin and Une's apartment is through the doorway behind the bar," he told Odin abruptly, pointing to the said spot. "Now, if you would excuse me, I'm going to talk to Quinze about tonight-"

Heero had not even given his father the chance to respond before he retreated to the office area behind the stage, locking the door after him.

/Hello/

Quatre's soft voice coming so soothingly through the receiver calmed his nerves considerably.

"Quatre, this is Heero. I know this is very odd, but the situation is an extreme emergency. I need you to tell Duo and Wufei to NOT find me at the Dragon in tomorrow night. DO NOT COME. They CANNOT come here to the club either. None of you. Do you understand me? Stay as FAR away from me and anything associated with me as possible."

/But, why- Heero, what's going on/

"I can't explain. Please, just tell them, and find a way to keep yourselves safe until I can call again."

/But- Heero? Heero/

He dropped the phone back down into its cradle and rubbed his face roughly. That probably wasn't the best way to handle things, but hopefully they would listen, because it was too late now to call back and fix it as a delicate knock resounded balefully through the office.

"Heero, dear? Why don't you show some manners and say hello to your mother? I know you are in there."

* * *

Quatre placed the receiver down gently after the vampire had hung up on him, looking apprehensively over at Trowa, Duo, and Wufei, whom were all staring right back from the kitchen table with the same expressions.

"What's wrong, Q?"

"I don't know, Heero wouldn't say. All he said was to not meet him at the Dragon tomorrow and to stay away from any of the places you three meet up at, that it was an extreme emergency that you listened to him," the blonde replied reluctantly.

"Like hell we won't!" Duo replied instantly, furious at being told what he could and could not do. Which was exactly why the empath had been reluctant to relay the message. "There's obviously something seriously wrong going on, so we gotta help him!"

Wufei stilled his lover's tirade with a touch of his hand on the other's shoulder. "He knows we would do it too, and that is why he told us to stay away. Never in all the time I've known him has he acted like this, if it's so important to Heero, then leave him alone," he reasoned. "I assume he also said he would call as soon as it was safe, right?"

Quatre nodded silently.

"Then it has something to do with this whole underground fiasco and he's trying to help -us- out by distancing himself for a while until the whole thing is back under control," Wufei shrugged.

"Isn't this what we decided the last time we were in a 'fiasco' like this and he ended up -needing- our help?" Duo retorted.

"Yes, and we all almost died as well," Trowa indicated calmly.

"SO? Isn't that part of our job description anyway?" he shot back, sarcastically brandishing one of the stakes off of the sheathe he had been reloading.

"True. But Duo, let's wait a little while, we have to go see Irea and my other sisters tonight anyway. So we can find out the whole problem so we don't go running headlong into battle uninformed," Quatre replied, ever the diplomat that he was.

The braided slayer puffed up indignantly for a second, then promptly deflated in defeat and heaved a heavy sigh. "Fine, fine, we'll wait. But if we find out Heero's dead because of all this, it's all your fault."

"I think you're being a bit over the top here, wo ai," Wufei shook his head amusedly, patting his shoulder. "Heero is a big vampire, he can handle himself."

Really, the Asian was as worried as his partner was. This was all too much of a coincidence to not worry. First, Duo starts having nightmares and headaches, then Irea and the others show up unexpectedly, his own wretched nightmares, and now Heero is suddenly vanishing from their friendship to protect them from what is going on.

What IS going on?

Both Duo and Quatre were right though. They were slayers, they could handle themselves just as well as a vampire could, however, it was best to give the situation a good debriefing before they jumped into a world of blood and massacre.

"Well, c'mon then, let's go and get this over with!" Duo insisted impatiently, strapping the sheathe he had been loading onto his boot and standing up.

'I wouldn't be so excited if I were you...' Trowa thought, shrugging outwardly as they all gathered their things and left.

Irea's hideout was not too far away from their own, and they were greeted by a very surprising occupant. After Quatre knocked, a tall, slender woman with curly reddish brown hair answered with a broad smile as her eyes alighted on Trowa.

"Catherine?" he asked, pleasantly surprised. "I thought you were in Europe on a mission."

"I was, until my mission brought me back," Catherine's smile dimmed. "I am the one who brought Irea all of her information on this underground situation. At least, the updated information anyway."

They entered the den where Irea and a few other sisters were waiting. The men quickly settled in to vacant spots as Catherine returned to her seat by Irea.

"I suppose we should get right to the point, it's after sunset and we don't have much time to waste talking when there are people to protect," Irea said in welcome, all business. She gave Quatre and Trowa the slightest of looks before continuing, "First, we'll start with the origin of the situation."

"As we all know, vampires live in a society very much like the archaic Middle Ages, monarchy-based. The most powerful and influential vampires are called sovereigns, their equivalent to kings and queens that govern different hot spots all over the world and keep some semblance of order-"

"-and what they don't keep in order, -we- do," Duo added with a smirk, causing Irea to chuckle midsentence.

"Yes, indeed. Anyway, as with all monarchy-based societies, the sovereigns like to...squabble, which leads to vampire wars sprouting up in the middle of all those hot spots all over the world. This time however, one of the more powerful of the sovereigns has made quite the unexpected move and is coming here. Which we absolutely cannot have. Unexpected can be apocalyptic given the very tenuous line we both, vampires and slayers alike, walk. We manage to keep the outside world from knowing about us, and if we can't control this unexpected move, then we're in serious trouble."

"And so we come to the origin," Irea sighed. "This happened before, a few years ago. Wufei, I don't know how much you know, but I'm sure Quatre, Trowa, and Duo have told you as much as they know."

"Yes," Wufei nodded, though he frowned slightly as Quatre shifted uncomfortably, thinking no one had noticed. However, he quickly dismissed that thought as Duo curled up closer to him on the couch.

"Do we really have to talk about this?" Duo asked, his face working to conceal his upset.

"Yes, Duo, we really need to talk about it," Irea said sympathetically. "Because we think the same sovereign from the attack on the Maxwells is the one here now-"

"WHAT!" Now he was on his feet. "The same one? Why? If it is the same bloodsucking bitch that killed off my adoptive family then I want to be the one to personally cut her fucking head off!" Duo's eyes flashed with violet flames, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

Wufei stood up and placed his arms around his waist, willing the braided slayer to relax in his embrace. "Come on, wo ai, let's just listen to what they have to say before jumping ahead," he said gently, coaxing him back onto the couch.

Irea was clearly reluctant to continue. "I'm sorry Duo," she said sincerely. "But it must happen because...well, you really don't know -everything- about that night."

All the sisters and Catherine were looking uncomfortable now.

"Tell me, have you been having nightmares and headaches again?" Catherine asked, taking over.

"How do you know that?" Duo replied, his tone suspicious.

"Hey, I haven't said a word," Wufei remarked before he could glare at him. "We do live in the same house as an empath though. Quatre and Trowa asked me about it yesterday." The other couple nodded in agreement.

"So what's that got to do anything?" Duo demanded, turning his frustration back to Catherine and Irea.

"That's why we know this sovereign is the same woman as before," Catherine answered. "We didn't find you by chance going through the house like we let you believe. When we found you, the sovereign had you in the middle of the Blood Exchange."

All of the red anger that had been burning in Duo's face drained to a sickly white pallor. "But- but I'm here, I'm a slayer...I'm not one of them-"

Irea bit her lip. "That's true, but it's the only reason you were able to become a slayer without being born one, like in a family such as mine and Quatre's, or Catherine and Trowa's. You are part of our community that we call Tainted, slayers who were able to learn the arts because they were either once a vampire, like Wufei, or they were given an incomplete Blood Exchange. In your case, you were bitten, but we drove the sovereign off before she could give you her blood to turn you."

"That's insane!" Duo protested feebly, still looking like he was about to fall into a dead faint any second.

"I wish I could agree with you, wo ai..." Wufei said apologetically. "But I've heard about this from Heero, except with humans drinking vampire's blood and getting the same effects so they could seek justice for their dead loved ones."

"That's another way," Catherine assented.

"Did- did you two know about this?" Duo turned towards Quatre and Trowa.

"No, we didn't," the empath said with a pained expression, his hand massaging the area above his heart. "I swear."

"We thought it was best left in the dark to everyone," Irea added. "I really am sorry Duo, we were never going to say anything, but given the situation...with her being back in town, we had to forewarn you in case she tries to seek you out and finish what she started. Make sure you went into battle prepared and all," she ended rather lamely.

"So is there any other news to give me to make my night any -better-?" Duo cracked sarcastically, struggling to stop shaking in shock by gripping the edge of the couch cushion tightly.

"Don't focus on the reason you came into this life, just think about how you feel now," Trowa replied profoundly. "Just think, if it didn't happen, you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be living with me and Quatre, you wouldn't have Wufei, or Heero. And you wouldn't be able to play with all the fun weapons we get to."

He started laughing, at first slightly hysterical, but soon it was a normal Duo laugh as he released his grip on the couch. "Eloquent pep talk there Trowa, lemme tell you," he snickered.

* * *

At least this ended on a light note, eh? Won't be light for long...(evil cackle)

Anyway...some reviews...

LadyDragonWolfKnight: I'm glad you're still enjoying my story! Yeah...it does seem kinda weird now that you mention it...but hey, it's the effect that counts! (sweatdrop)

CrimsonVampirissEm: Heylo! I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to you...I'm glad you like my stuff! I don't care if you use any of these ideas, I was inspired by Mercedes Lackey for the empath thing, and all this slayer stuff is a combination of Laurell K. Hamilton and the Blade movies, so there you go. I'll check it out once you get it posted!

Mako-chan: I know...I am a horrible fangirl when it comes to fics like this. (sigh) I really hate abusing my poor Fei and Duo...but it's fun, in a sick, twisted sort of way! I know Dorothy is icky, but I couldn't leave out our favorite icky character...since I killed off Relena anyway. Noin has just gone mental, and poor Une has to suffer for it...maybe I'll fix it...I dunno, there's a bunch of things that I had planned out that didn't quite come out as I had planned as I wrote, but you know how that feels, eh? Once you're on the roll, your mind has a way of its own. But there will be more Quatre and Trowa, I promise! I will have a scene that will make all 3x4 fans drooling...mmm...yummy yaoiness...But my updates will be much more frequent now because I'm out of school, just hope my computer doesn't die on me again, at least not before I get my new computer in a few weeks...(heart)

WingedBonnie: I'm glad you like both of my fics! I'm sorry it's taken so long to update, but I'll be rolling out chapters a lot faster now!

Reviews make measly authors like me VERY happy indeed, so please leave one! Flames will be used to roast my marshmallows with! Buwahaha!


	6. Chapter 6

Yaay for another chapter! (happy dance) I love having free time again...Now time to go finish the chapter for my Harry Potter fic while I leave you guys to enjoy the latest cliffhanger filled installment of Midnight Masquerade!

* * *

"Mother, how may I help you?"

Heero kept a neutral expression on his face as the blonde woman breezed into his office as if she owned the place and sat in his chair.

Dorothy's chilly laugh tinkled like shattering icicles. "Now that is a much better attitude," she raised a forked eyebrow. "I see you have made absolutely no progress in life whatsoever since abandoning us."

"If you remember correctly this -was- Treize and Zechs' establishment," he replied curtly.

"Yes, but they at least kept in with the right crowd, not these arrogant children who think they rule the night world," Dorothy sneered. "Now, I'll be willing to ignore this little...indiscretion...and let you go about your hermit existence away from us only if you cooperate with me." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and sent him a smile that -she- may have believed maternal.

"What do you want from me? You have Lucrezia to occupy your every whim and need," Heero said flatly, folding his arms over his chest. "I am of no use to you."

"Oh, I do protest!" Dorothy demurred lightly, her blue eyes taking on a lethal gleam as she leaned forward. "You know I am here because I was informed of the slayers little stunt a few months ago, and I know you know what they look like. So I want you to assist Lucrezia and Middie in finding those slayers and the betrayer of our kind and bringing them to me, so I can exact justice to the deaths of Relena, Sally, Treize, and Zechs. Considering your relationship with the betrayer Wufei, I would very much like to hope that he plotted their deaths on his own accordance, and that he did not have any...encouragement...from you."

"Of course not, I would never do such a thing," Heero replied almost robot-like, even though his heart felt like it had just plummeted to the other side of the world and all his insides turned to stone.

"I thought so! Good, so you will begin the search tonight! I will go tell Lucrezia now and you can be off as soon as possible!" Dorothy was positively glowing with glee as she got to her feet and glided around the desk, giving Heero a small pat on the cheek with her icy hand before leaving. "I knew you would never let me down!"

Heero collapsed in his chair as soon as she was out of sight and let out a long shuddering breath. There was no way to call them now; they would already be long gone from their apartment and out on patrol. And having to search with Noin will be like have a spy camera on him at all times, so there would not be a chance to find them alone and warn them.

For what must have been the billionth time that night he hissed a very loud 'Fuck!' and left a splintering dent in his desk after punching it in frustration.

This was definitely not good.

* * *

Duo didn't know what to feel now as the four left Irea's and hit the streets for their nightly routine.

On one hand, yes it was nice that they informed him -now- about his origins, especially since the root of his origins was the big bad vampire in town. It would explain why he was able to do what he does, he knew his adoptive family were slayers, but he knew nothing of his real family. He had just assumed they got killed like the Maxwells had. At least he was in the same boat as Wufei, so that wasn't too big of a problem.

On the other hand however...It would have been nicer to know all of this from the beginning, instead of the Winner sisters acting as if it were some sort of 'problem' that could be ignored and just forgotten. What if he had run into this sovereign by accident and she could manipulate his mind or something horrible like that because of their failed connection? And he wouldn't have known a thing! She could have made him kill Quatre and Trowa without thinking twice about it!

Thankfully, Catherine assured him that the probability of her having any control was slim to none because of the time span since the failed Blood Exchange. And the fact that the sovereign would have obviously had many more successful ones since that would have diluted out his blood from her system.

But there was always the possibility, so he had to be extra careful until the threat had passed on.

Or he killed her. Either way sounded fine to him.

"Duo?" Wufei asked tentatively, breaking him out of his reverie.

"I'm fine, 'Fei!" Duo smiled reassuringly. "Honestly, I've made it so far without a problem, so why let it bother me? I'm a pretty damn good slayer, if I do say so myself, how I got to where I'm at now doesn't matter." He latched onto Wufei's arm and snuggled up to the Asian as they walked ahead from the other two.

"Well, it certainly explains why Duo's nightmares and headaches returned all of a sudden," Quatre said thoughtfully, watching them gain distance.

"Yes, but Catherine believed that she had no influence, so why have nightmares and headaches when she shouldn't be able to have any affect?" Trowa replied with concern.

"I don't know," the empath answered honestly. "I mean, Catherine knows what she's talking about, so why question it?"

"Whatever the case may be, I think we should switch up our routine tonight," his unibanged lover said. "Heero must know something, or else he wouldn't have called and told Duo and Wufei to stay away from him. She must be there with Noin and Une. So Duo and Wufei need to stay away from that side of the city, they can have our route."

"That sounds like a good idea," Quatre nodded. "Let's go catch up to them before they disappear on us."

* * *

Une laid back in the warm, bubbling Jacuzzi melting in the indulgence of letting Noin have her way with her. As much as her partner infuriated her with her insane obsession on getting revenge for Sally and the others, she knew there was good reason. They had all cared for them...maybe not Relena...but Sally had been Noin's love before her. If Sally weren't dead, she would still be alone watching everyone else revel in their content.

She didn't want to be alone again.

So why not let Noin have this closure? Even if she did go so far as to call Dorothy into their haven... Une had not been happy when she had seen Noin just sitting there at the sovereign's feet like some pathetic, obedient dog and had let her know it as soon as Dorothy left with Odin when he arrived with Heero.

And now Noin was making it up to her in her favorite way. She had never been able to refuse a good dose of pleasure in the hot tub while drinking a bottle of expensive champagne.

"I swear I was going to tell you everything, I just wanted to make sure my plans were going to be perfect," Noin said huskily into Une's ear as she pressed their naked bodies closer, then nibbled on the lobe teasingly. "I didn't want to look like an idiot if it didn't work out, and I wasn't expecting Dorothy to arrive so quickly. I am so sorry."

Une kissed her gently. "Stop apologizing, you've been forgiven a hundred times over already. I told you it's fine," she smiled. "Now enough talking. Finish what you've started."

"Of course," Noin smirked and started suckling at her throat when the door to their room slammed open and Dorothy waltzed right into the bathroom where they were enjoying themselves.

"Well! No wonder I could not find you downstairs," she said airily, looking extremely full of herself as she brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "I will just let you two know that I convinced my son into assisting you in your search for the slayers and that vile betrayer, so you two can go back to doing your...business." Dorothy vanished just as quickly as she had appeared.

"Damn, he's not even here and Heero -still- manages to interrupt us," Noin remarked irritably. "Shall we continue later?"

"Yeah, let's get this mess done and over with so we can have privacy again," Une brushed a wet strand of purple hair from her lover's face.

They climbed out of the Jacuzzi and changed into some clothes before heading down into the club where Heero was waiting at the end of the bar. He looked as pleased about the situation as Une was, judging by the sour frown on his face while watching Dorothy and Odin talk to each other at one of the tables.

"So what's our plan?" Heero asked the instant they were at his side.

"I think it's best that we split up," Noin said decisively. "Middie and I know different parts of the city than you, and I should think I can trust you to go on your own, despite our recent misgivings."

"How generous of you," he replied dryly as he got up and they headed out into the streets. "I still can't believe you dragged my mother into this."

"Well, she was the most effective way," Noin shrugged. "Besides, she practically volunteered to come as soon as she heard the news."

"Of course she would! Give her any reason to start another battle and she's all for it!" he said exasperatingly. "She didn't get her social ranking by just looking pretty, that's for damn sure. You have to be careful, or Dorothy will seize the reins and leave you in the dust."

"We won't let that happen," Une replied forcibly.

"I hope not," Heero sighed, then with a wave he vanished into the crowd.

Luck was on his side for now, but he wasn't sure how long it was going to last, so he had to hurry and find Duo and Wufei before the others did. Where they were was going to be a problem, Heero knew Wufei would have listened to his warning and forced Duo to comply as well. So where would they go when it wasn't one of their usual spots?

Heero started heading uptown. If he was right, to avoid his area of the city, they would trade shifts with Quatre and Trowa. Which would put them on the richer, classier side of the city where the wealthy wandered through fashionable stores or attended parties in their penthouses. It was usually where Treize and Zechs would run off to once they were sure the club was fine without them.

He just wished he was correct in assuming and that Noin and Une stayed close to the Masquerade...This would be a total disaster if he was seen conversing with a slayer and a betrayer out in public by one of Dorothy's associates. He didn't doubt that his mother had eyes all over the city to keep tabs on everything while she lounged in social bliss at the club with Odin.

Heero searched for what seemed like ages before finally spotting the couple loitering around outside the Metro Court Suites an hour before sunrise as a crowd of gaudily dressed businessmen and their wives was trickling out from the hotel. It looked like some sort of special party had just ended and everyone was heading home, so their slayer work there should be done now.

He wove his way through the clusters of people, until he was directly behind Duo and Wufei.

"Listen to me, don't turn around and acknowledge my presence, I don't have much time," Heero muttered lowly into their ears. He felt them both stiffen at the sound of his voice and struggle to not turn to demand answers. "I'm sorry for leaving the message with Quatre like that, but it was the only way. The information you wanted, Dorothy is at Midnight Masquerade with Noin and Une. She has everyone out on the hunt looking for you; they will most likely try to kill you on sight. I'm supposed to be looking for you too, so not a word that I found you, unless it's only to Quatre and Trowa. I'm going to do my best at misleading them and getting them to leave, but I can only do so much...Hope that Noin or Une doesn't find you." He touched their clasped hands as a way to tell them he was departing, with an odd, fluttering sensation flaring up in his chest at the feel of their warmth.

* * *

Duo and Wufei waited a second until Heero's presence was entirely gone from behind them before chancing a glance over their shoulders.

"Shit, 'Fei, they have a bounty out on our heads," Duo said nervously. "We seriously pissed off the wrong people."

"I know..." Wufei frowned. "You wouldn't be having this problem at all if I didn't come barging into your lives. I feel like this is all my fault."

"No! Don't you even think that!" he retorted. "It's not your fault! It would have happened eventually anyways, just because we are slayers, and we always run the risk of this happening. It's what killed my foster family after all. It's even the same woman...at least Heero gave us a name to our unknown enemy."

"Dorothy..." the Asian frowned even deeper. "It sounds vaguely familiar...I don't know, but we should start heading back home. It's close enough to sunrise that I don't think we'll be having any more problems here. We can fill in Quatre and Trowa and then go back to Irea's, they should be able to tell us more now that we have a name, right?"

"Yeah, that's Catherine's area of expertise," Duo nodded. "She's followed a bunch of sovereigns and spied on them, does a lot of undercover work. That's what she was doing in Europe, tailing a sovereign that was stirring up trouble in the underground. Kinda like a fire alarm, ya know what I mean? She can warn the closest slayer community so they can keep the wars under control."

"Good, then she's exactly who we'll need," Wufei replied. "I just wish Heero won't try too hard at covering up for us...what if they figure out his connection to us? The last thing I want is for him to put his life on the line to keep us safe when it was my insecurities that started this whole situation in the first place."

"From what I can tell, Heero is perfectly capable of handling himself, just as I'm sure he knows that we are perfectly capable of handling ourselves if we -do- run into these psycho vampires," Duo stated matter-of-factly. "And you need to stop blaming yourself, what's done is done."

"I know, but-"

"No buts!" he interrupted firmly, planting a kiss on his lover's cheek. "I don't wanna hear another word about it, okay? It's not your fault."

"All right, you win," Wufei consented, disgruntled. "I won't say another word about it if it makes you happy."

They walked the rest of the way back to the apartment complex in a comfortable silence, reaching their home at sunrise and finding it empty. There was no sign that Quatre and Trowa had come home yet, so they waited...and waited...

"Maybe they're already at Irea's, I mean Quatre hasn't seen his sisters in a while..." Duo suggested after almost two hours of waiting on the other couple to show up. He went over to the phone and punched in Irea's number.

/Hello/

"Irea, hey, is Quatre and Trowa over there?"

/No, they're not. Neither is Catherine, she left a note saying something came up but she never returned either./

"So you haven't heard anything?"

Wufei turned around and looked over at the braided slayer as worry trickled in his voice.

/Not a thing since you all left last night./

"Shit. All right, thanks Irea," Duo ran a hand through his bangs as he hung up the phone, the only outward sign of the concern that had been in his voice during the conversation. "Nada. Irea said Catherine's gone missing too."

"They got to them before we could warn them..."

"Now, we don't know that for sure, we'll wait a little while longer and if they don't show...then we'll get -really- worried," Duo said, chewing his lip.

Unfortunately, he couldn't shake the ominous feeling of dread that had settled in his stomach. There was no doubt in his mind that Quatre and Trowa weren't coming home this time.

* * *

(dun dun dun) Don't you just love cliffhangers?

Reviews!

LIKESTOLOL: Interesting name...But yes, I do roast marshmallows with any flames that I get...I've actually been lucky, I don't think I've ever gotten a flame in all the fics that I've posted here at (shrug) But I'm glad you're enjoying my fic!

Nelia: Oh my Nelia! You've always been one of my favorite reviewers! Yes, I finally came out of my fanfiction hibernation (aka: senior year and college crap) and started writing again. And, as always, you will definitely see that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to my ficcies, and Duo's predicament is no exception! (wicked grin) DVG is back and ready to throw some of the evilest plot twists I have ever written at you guys! I'm glad you're liking the new chapters so far!

Hikarii: Yep! I'm updating on a regular basis now, at least until I move to Tampa this September. I want to try and get most of this fic and my Harry Potter fic done and out, because who knows how long it'll take me to get internet in my new apartment when I start college. Ick, just thinking about it is giving me internet withdrawals...But I'm glad you're enjoying my story so far!

LadyDragonWolfKnight: Yaayness! Yeah, I was feeling a bit rusty cause it's been so long since I've been able to sit and write, but thankfully no one has seen anything to complain about yet! I'm back in action again, and you can bet there's going to be plenty of action soon enough now that we've got Quatre and Trowa captured by the bad guys! (grin)

WingedBonnie: Thank you! I'm glad you like my story! Heero's gonna have some really tough crap to deal with here soon, and it only gets worse before it gets better! Just you wait!

Crysania Fay: Of course, I had to throw a little humor in there, I can never be completely serious, even in the most angsty of my fics. (grin) Leave it to Trowa to lighten the mood up a bit!

Reviews are nice and author-friendly, so if you could be so kind as to leave me one...I'd really appreciate it!


	7. Chapter 7

Yaay, another chapter! I started writing the next chapter to my Harry Potter fic...then started watching all my Gundam Wing DVDs and Endless Waltz, re-read 'Blood Lust', and started writing this instead.

Do any of you know that there are TWO movies after the series? I read it in Newtype, that there are TWO Gundam Wing movies! And here I thought my collection was complete! It will find it if it's the last thing I do!

(ahem) But yeah...I was going to slam pack a great cliffhanger at the end, but why try to cram in something that needs a whole chapter by itself to write out? So this is the calm before the proverbial shit hits the fan! You also get a look in Duo's memories!

Enjoy!

* * *

Heero felt exhausted even though he really hadn't done a thing except for walk around the city. His mind was running circles through different scenarios as he tried to come up with a plan that could possibly free the slayers without implicating himself and to get Noin and Dorothy to drop this issue.

Everything he had thought of so far ended with him dead and the slayers free, the slayers dead and his freedom, or them all being dead.

He had begun to seriously consider taking all the blame for himself as the only clear cut option to take. Dorothy can kill him and get her revenge and the slayers could walk free. If only he could trust that she would keep her end of the deal and leave them alone if he sacrificed himself, but knowing his mother, the moment he was a pile of ashes on the floor, she would slaughter them with no remorse.

As Heero approached Midnight Masquerade, he spotted Une ushering vampires out of the club in the usual nightly routine of getting them home before sunrise. She spotted him as he got closer and waved him over.

"You need to go down to the cellar, She asked for you to see Her before you went home," Une said cryptically, looking warily around the outpouring crowd.

"Why? I was only going to tell you or Noin that I found nothing and be on my way, there is no reason for me to spend more time with her then I absolutely have to," he muttered darkly.

"It's important."

Heero suddenly got a sick feeling in his gut. "Understood."

He went around to the back of the building as fast as he possibly could without looking suspicious to the set of double steel, sun protection doors that opened to the basement of the club.

'This can't be good...'

The ominous vibe thickened as he shut the doors behind him and made his way down the stairs, Dorothy and Noin's voices floating up towards him.

"...so what are we going to do? It's too close to dawn to have any real fun before we have to sleep."

"That is perfectly acceptable to me. I would rather have the pleasure of a full night of entertainment."

Heero went numb as he reached the end of the stairs and stared at the scene before him.

Quatre and Trowa. The empath was securely bound in metal shackles against the wall while his unibanged lover was strapped to a machine that would not have been out of place in a torture chamber from the Middle Ages. They looked the worse for wear, so they had to have put up a good fight against Noin and Une before being forced into submission. Both seemed completely impassive to their situation, but knowing them better than the women, Heero could see the slight panic flickering in Quatre's cerulean eyes as he glanced from Trowa to Dorothy and Noin.

"Ah! Heero, I was wondering how long you were going to make us wait!" Dorothy greeted with a Cheshire Cat smile.

"I apologize, I wanted to search as long as I could before reporting in to you," he replied stonily, turning his gaze to Quatre and praying the empath would understand the situation. The blonde's panic turned to sympathy and he gave a slight nod of his head before putting his stoic mask back in place.

"I want the other two by tomorrow night, and no excuses!" Dorothy demanded, her hands on her hips. "The traitor and his slayer must be here to watch their friends die slow, agonizing deaths before experiencing it for themselves. Although, I just might be cruel enough to give them a few days to let the images of their friends' suffering fester, then give them the release of death."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Heero asked caustically. "Now, I would like to return to my apartment before it gets too late, so if we're done here..."

"That's fine, but you need to be back first thing tomorrow night," Noin said with a deep frown.

"Yes, I think I will retire myself...Come, Lucrezia, let us go upstairs," Dorothy beckoned imperiously to the purple haired woman and they headed towards the basement staircase. Noin threw a distrustful glance over her shoulder before they left the room.

Heero waited until he heard them both leave and slam the steel doors behind them before making a beeline over to the couple. "I'm sorry, I tried to keep this from happening before I could warn you," he muttered lowly. "I managed to catch Duo and Wufei earlier and I hoped that they would be able to reach you two..."

"Don't worry about us, worry about yourself," Quatre smiled wanly. "You at least protected Duo and Wufei for now."

"Yeah, -for now-, I don't know how long I can keep this up before Noin suspects me any more than she already does," he scowled. "I promise we will find a way out of this mess, I don't want you two to be killed."

"It's our job," Trowa said calmly.

"But still...I will do something!" Heero bit out in frustration. "I must leave for now, the least I can swear to you is that they won't do anything until I return with Duo and Wufei. If that's one certainty about Dorothy, she never does anything half-assed, she always wants it all her way or no way at all."

"Well then, we'll just have to give her the show of a lifetime before she kills us, won't we?" Trowa responded with amusement.

"That's not funny. I don't think I could bear having to see Duo and Wufei's suffering as they mourn for your passing..." Heero's hands balled into fists so tight by his sides that his nails cut into his palms as he turned sharply away from the two. "You will make it out of here alive, I promise."

'Be careful Heero...' Quatre pleaded silently, watching the Japanese vampire stalk out of the cellar. 'I believe Trowa and I would not be able to bear their sorrow if -you- sacrificed yourself for our sakes.'

"Interesting. I always thought Duo and Wufei would be the first to admit their feelings about Heero, not vice versa," Trowa remarked, clearly enjoying himself despite their predicament.

"Emotions can cause strange things to happen in the right situations..."

* * *

_"Duo, Solo, we're heading out for the night!"_

_A tall, beautiful blonde woman stood in the foyer with a prematurely aged gentleman smiling as they finished buttoning up their long coats. The two boys came running from the den, the older one looked about twelve with an appearance similar to her with light, feathery locks and blue eyes while the other was eight years old and seemed out of place with his dark chestnut braided hair and purple eyes._

_"You go out every night and you're gone forever, why can't you just stay home for once?" Solo asked, annoyed. "Duo and I have decided that we want you to stay home tonight, don't we Duo?"_

_"Yes! Pleeeeease?" Duo put on his most pathetic pouty face, sticking out his lower lip._

_"I wish we could, but you know we have to work," their father sighed._

_"You guys be good while we're gone, all right? I don't want another call from Mrs. Smith next door complaining that you were tormenting her cats or setting off fireworks or any other form of mischief, got it?" Helen said sternly, kissing her sons both on the forehead._

_"I'll make sure Solo is good!" Duo grinned._

_"Hey! You were the one that blew up her flowerpots with bottle rockets last week, not me!" Solo retorted. _

_"That's beside the point."_

_"No it's not!"_

_"Boys-"_

_Father Maxwell was unable to finish his reprimand as the front door exploded open, chilling laughter filling the hallway. He instinctively put the two boys behind him out of sight as Helen ripped open her coat and pulled out a loaded pistol._

_"Go- Run and hide!" he commanded, turning and pushing Duo and Solo out of the foyer as his wife opened fire at the figures pouring in the doorway._

_"But Dad!"_

_"C'mon Duo, now's not the time for arguing!" Solo grabbed his hand and towed him away as sounds of a fierce fight echoed through the house. They ran up stairs and went into the storage closet, where there was another hidden door that led to the attic._

_"I don't like this Solo," Duo whispered fearfully. "What if those bad people find us?"_

_"They won't, Mom and Dad will take care of them, I'm sure of it," he muttered back, taking the younger boy and hugging him close. "Everything will be all right."_

_"So why'd you rat me out about the stupid flowerpots?"_

_"You were asking for it," Solo snickered. "It's my job, as your older brother, to pick on you as much as possible."_

_The house went eerily silent._

_"Should we wait for them to call for us?" Duo asked, peering cautiously over the boxes they were sitting behind._

_"Yeah, we need to stay right here for a while."_

_"Oh, I do not think that is necessary."_

_They scrambled to their feet and stared in horror at the woman standing at the other side of the attic. She gave another icy laugh and approached them slowly, flicking her long, blood streaked hair over her shoulder._

_"S-Solo...that's not Mom..."_

_"No, your Mommy Dearest would be the one lying dead downstairs waiting for her children to join her," the woman replied amusedly._

_"NO!" Solo snatched up the first thing within reach and charged at the creature head on. _

_"No- SOLO STOP!"_

_Duo watched in dismay as the woman easily knocked the object out of his hands and lifted his brother off the floor with a bone-crushing grip by his neck, strangling him to death. She tossed his body aside carelessly, then turned her attention onto the only one left._

_"You are not a Maxwell..." she remarked, taking his heart-shaped face in her cold hands._

_"I AM SO! My name is Duo Maxwell!" he spit out defiantly. "So kill me! Make me dead like the rest of my family!"_

_She chuckled appreciatively. "My, my, such recklessness...You are not a Maxwell, you do not have the slayer blood in you. However, I cannot let such a pretty face go to waste. You shall become my child, since you are so willing..."_

_Fear froze Duo to the spot as she leaned in and sank her fangs into his throat, pain beyond pain flooding his system. He didn't hear the gunshots over his screams, or see the wretched creature on top of him escape before she could finish what she started as he faded into unconsciousness. _

_"They have won for now, little one. I will come back for you..."_

* * *

Duo woke up with a violent start, breathing hard and pouring sweat. He instantly groped over to the right where Wufei laid, but found the spot empty. A look at the clock told him why, it was almost sunset and he had slept in.

He hated the nightmares that plagued his sleep. He hated having to relive that night in his last home. At least he now knew that the nightmares were real memories, not just his imagination blowing it out of proportion, though they were much more painfully detailed and emotional. No matter what Dorothy had said, he was a Maxwell, maybe not by blood, but they had been his only family before Quatre, his sisters, and Trowa took him in.

Duo picked up his hairbrush and began idly combing out tangles when his absent lover came into the bedroom, pale as a ghost.

"Wo ai, we need to hurry, Heero just called," he said grimly. "They have Quatre and Trowa."

"I was afraid of that..." Duo's expression screwed up and he hurled his brush at the wall with an angry curse. "I'll kill that fucking bitch if it's the last thing I ever do! I won't let her destroy my family again!"

Wufei saved the abused brush and sat behind Duo on the bed to complete the chore of taming his wild hair. "We'll figure something out, wo ai," he assured, feeling the furious tension seep out of his body as Duo turned around and threw himself at him, tears streaming down his face. Wufei wrapped his arms around him and kissed the top of his head.

"Come on, let me finish braiding your hair and we'll go," he said gently, wiping the tears away and giving him another kiss.

"I'm going to -kill- her," Duo growled, waiting patiently as Wufei tied off his braid and then jumped up, changing into clean clothes as they headed out into the living room and loaded up on weapons from the hall closet. "Are they keeping Quatre and Trowa in Midnight Masquerade?"

"In the basement. Heero said that the entrance is behind the building," Wufei replied, pulling on his trenchcoat to hide the arsenal he had.

"All right, let's go shoot their shit up, eh?" Duo smirked, starting to leave but he stopped suddenly and looked back. "I love you, 'Fei."

"I love you too Duo."

"I just had to say that..." he opened the door and they went into the corridor. "I never got a chance to say that to Solo and our parents. I don't want to make that mistake again, just in case something happens."

"I understand that feeling."

"Ya know, we were trying so hard to get them to stay home from their work, just to spend one night with us. If we hadn't, they wouldn't have been at the house when Dorothy came...and Solo and I were fighting over who blew up the neighbor's flowerpots with bottle rockets," Duo smiled wistfully.

"That sounds like something you would do," Wufei replied.

"Hey! Yeah well, okay it was me, but they were ugly flowers anyway, so it's not like anyone would've missed them," he shrugged indifferently. "Enough reminiscing though, we gotta go save Quatre and Trowa and show those assholes that they pissed off the wrong people tonight!"

* * *

Yaay! Enjoy the calm while you can, cause the next chapter is going to be a –very- bumpy ride! (evil cackle)

Reviews are nice, so feed this authoress' ego by leaving one:)


	8. Chapter 8

In the wake of reading the new Harry Potter book and disowning J.K. Rowling as one of my favorite authors, I am venting in a horribly painful, cliffhanger ended chapter!

Enjoy.

* * *

Heero stared at the telephone on his desk with trepidation after he hung up with Wufei.

Did he just do the right thing?

He knew that as soon as Wufei told Duo where their partners were, he would jump the gun and run straight there to the basement of the club, no matter who was in their way. In fact, he was planning on catching them before they got too close to Midnight Masquerade and having them act as his prisoners, so he could get them to the cellar without a problem. Then he can take the full blame of everything onto himself and give them the opportunity to get Quatre and Trowa and leave.

He had been honest when he told the empath and his lover that he would not be able to stand Duo and Wufei's pain if they lost their friends, he would rather end his eternal existence and let them live freely.

These thoughts were so foreign to him, these ideas that considered Duo and Wufei friends and wanted them to be more than friends, these...emotions that -cared- about what happened to them. He had not believed himself capable of the human emotions that he had envied so much in Wufei when he was a vampire, but then he thought...he hadn't a use for those feelings until Wufei was dropped into his life by Zechs and Treize, and then when he had become entangled in the Chinese man's affairs with the slayers.

He really hoped tonight went according to his plans.

"Hey, Heero, right? The others are waiting rather impatiently for you by the bar."

Heero looked up at the doorway to his office at the slender woman with curly auburn hair leaned against the frame. "I know that. Who are you?"

"Catherine, I came with Dorothy's entourage from Europe," she replied, standing up straight.

"You're not one of us," he said flatly, narrowing his piercing gaze at her and not sensing a trace of vampirism, but there was something about her that wasn't a normal human either.

"You're right, I'm not."

Heero followed the mysterious woman out into the club where Noin and Une were waiting for them.

"It's about time," Noin said irritably, crossing her arms. "Heero, Catherine will be going with you tonight. Dorothy wants to make sure you're able to bring the other two in without any difficulties."

"Fine. Has anyone checked the cellar yet?"

"No, but I shouldn't think we have to," Une frowned. "I made sure everything was secure last night."

"That doesn't mean anything," Heero responded with a slight sneer, then glanced over at Catherine. "Dorothy's orders, right? I warned you to keep a tight grip on the reins, or she was going to take control." He threw one more dirty glare at an angry Noin before walking out with the red-haired woman close behind.

"Aren't you just a friendly guy?" Catherine asked amusedly.

"She deserves it for what she's done," Heero replied. "She still doesn't quite grasp the extremity of the situation she's started, but she'll realize it after it's too late."

He threw open the basement doors and led her down the stairs. His sharp hearing picked up Quatre and Trowa's quiet conversation before they shut up at the sounds of people entering.

The blonde was still hanging from his manacles on the wall just as the other unibanged slayer was still lying rather comfortably strapped up in the torture device, what was different, however, was their response to Heero's presence.

"Catherine, what are you doing here?" Quatre asked, baffled.

Trowa, who was facing the wall and thus couldn't see, was equally surprised. "She's here?"

"Hello, little brother, it seems you landed smack dab in the middle of my latest assignment!" Catherine greeted, her smile somewhat dimmed by the concern that showed as she stood by Trowa.

"Little brother?"

The empath chuckled. "Catherine does undercover work for us. Well, for my sisters really," he answered.

"You've called Duo and Wufei already, right? Before I came into your office," she added, turning back towards Heero.

"Yeah..." Heero shook his head to clear the confusion. "I told them Quatre and Trowa were here, so knowing them, they'll be here soon."

"I guess we've got a job to do then," Catherine sighed. "Hang tight in here guys, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

Heero and Catherine left the cellar and went into the alleyway.

"So what's your plan, assuming you have one?"

"We'll bring in Duo and Wufei as requested, but when I tell Dorothy the truth, she'll want to kill me instead of them. So it will give them the chance to escape that they need," he said, his eyes searching the sidewalks as they reached the street.

"That is the saddest, most selfish plan I've ever heard of," Catherine demurred, frowning.

"It's what has to be done."

"No, it doesn't. One call and I can have an army storm in, distract everyone and then you can make your escape with my brother and his friends," she remarked, stopping abruptly and pulling out her cellphone.

Heero wasn't able to respond before Une's voice called out over the crowded sidewalk.

"Yuy!"

He and Catherine whipped around and saw Noin and Une pursuing the two slayers in between people. "Shit-" He exchanged glances with Catherine and with a nod, they ran head on into Duo and Wufei's path. Heero snatched up Wufei by an arm and held him close, just as Catherine did to Duo. "Listen, fight with me, put on a show as long as I can get you into the basement. We have a plan."

Wufei shivered at the feel of the Japanese vampire's mouth so lightly touching the side of face as he spoke. "Fine, but we won't play lightly."

"I didn't expect you to," Heero smirked, loosening his grip and shoving him back into the alleyway.

Duo broke away from Catherine, tearing his gun out of its holster and pointing it at her. "Don't worry Cathy, I won't hit ya," he winked and aimed slightly above her right shoulder, where he had a clean shot at Noin and Une. She kicked the gun out of his hand as he fired, making the bullet just barely miss Noin's head as she came to a dead stop a few feet away.

"Are you all right!" Une asked worriedly, checking her purple-haired lover for injury.

"I'm okay, don't worry about me, we have to help subdue the slayers," Noin said waspishly, watching Heero and Wufei's brawl.

"I'll take Catherine, you help Yuy."

Wufei ducked Heero's punch and dove off to the side as Noin jumped into their fight in full fury. 'Damn it, we're not going to last long without harming Trowa's sister and Heero,' he thought desperately, glancing over as Une threw Duo into the wall with a sweep of her arm. 'And we still have to get Quatre and Trowa out of whatever situation they're in.'

He climbed to his feet slowly, allowing Noin's kick to connect with his ribcage and leaving himself open for Heero to grab his arms and pin them behind his back. Duo was quick to catch on and soon Une had him in a similar hold.

"I'm going to kill you fuckers if you've harmed a single hair on their heads!" he spat at Noin as she opened the cellar doors.

"I don't think you're in the right position to be threatening us," she replied coldly.

"Yeah, well Zechs and Treize said that too and see where THAT got them!"

Wufei's expression twisted into a scowl as Noin snapped around and punched Duo across the face. "Duo- be quiet! You're not helping any!"

"Fuck them!" he retorted, wincing. "Ow, that shit really hurt..."

Quatre gazed at the staircase as the arguments outside filtered down into the cellar and the vampires entered with their prisoners. Duo's cheek was already blossoming into an ugly purple bruise and he could feel the pain throbbing in Wufei's side from the kick.

"Do something with them, I'm going to go back up and tell Dorothy that we're ready for her," Noin said sharply.

Catherine stripped Duo and Wufei of their weapons and Heero secured them onto the wall next to the blonde empath, neither of them able to give them any of the leeway planned for their escape with Une's eagle eyes scrutinizing their every move.

* * *

"Are you really going to go through with this darling? It's a bit much just because Milliardo and Treize were stupid enough to get themselves killed in the middle of a vampire party in the first place," Odin said dryly.

"The more the better, it will send the perfect message out to all the other slayers to tread lightly," Dorothy dismissed airily. "And any others of our kind who are thinking about becoming betrayers will be too scared out of their wits to even consider it again."

"I still think you should drop it so we can go back to Europe, we won't have to deal with all of this insolence there," he replied convincingly.

"Perhaps..."

"Dorothy, we have them," Noin announced, standing in front of them and looking slightly out of breath. "All four of them."

"Excellent!" Dorothy clasped her hands together enthusiastically and sprang up to her feet. "Are you coming with us, Odin?"

"No, I think I'll just hang out up here," he sighed, stretching out on the couch and shooing her off with a lazy wave. "Just find me whenever you're ready to leave."

"So everything is as planned, correct?" Dorothy asked, practically glowing with excitement.

"Yes, Catherine, Heero, and Middie are currently watching over them while I came to get you," Noin answered curtly, leading the way as she returned to the alleyway and back down into the cellar.

Dorothy observed the scene with a smirk on her face until her eyes landed on Duo, then her mouth formed an 'O' of surprise. "Now this is -much- better than I expected..." she purred, walking past the purple-haired woman into the basement light. "Since all of our -honored- guests are present, I say we begin."

Duo growled, his anger rising at every word that she spoke. She wasn't going to destroy his life again. "Leave Quatre and Trowa out of this, you bitch! You want the one that killed Zechs and Treize, right! So just take me, let them go!"

"I am afraid history is just going to have to repeat itself," she laughed icily, bringing her face close to his. "Only this time, not only are you not a Maxwell, but you are not even a real slayer! Ironic, no?"

"Fuck you," he hissed acidly. "I don't give a shit what you say, I am what I am, no matter how I got here! Let them go and take it out on me, just like you shoulda fucking killed me years ago!"

Dorothy's amused façade only brightened. "But why do that when I can have even more fun watching you -suffer-?" she turned to the other women. "Begin."

Wufei's heart was racing a million miles a second. This was definitely not how this was supposed to happen. Why didn't he think to call Irea and the others? Maybe Catherine already did that, and they'll come charging in just as they had that night in the Maxwell house. He hadn't expected that when Duo said she went undercover that he meant -this- far undercover.

Catherine had pulled out a set of very sharp throwing knives and now stood in front of Wufei and Duo. She started with the smallest ones and worked her way to the largest, each one coming so close to hitting Trowa that they nailed his tight clothes to the wood of the machine.

Heero eyed the red-haired woman warily as she picked up the last dagger and lined her shot up to the center of the unibanged slayer's face. 'How far is his sister willing to go without blowing her cover?' he thought, feeling almost as nervous as Quatre looked.

The blonde let out a stifled gasp as Catherine's knife sliced Trowa's cheek as it landed into the wood just under his earlobe. Duo was cursing worse than ever.

"My turn!" Dorothy couldn't have been any more gleeful if she were Queen of the Underground and ruled over all the vampires. "Lucrezia, be a dear and turn the lever behind him a few clicks, make him feel really uncomfortable. He is enjoying this too much."

The panels of the machine pulled further apart with each echoing grid, taking Trowa's limbs with it and stretching them beyond their limitations. His right shoulder made a sickening pop, dislocated.

"P-please, stop this!" The pain Quatre felt resonated through his voice as he curled up as far as his restraints would allow. "Don't hurt him any more."

"Would you rather take his place?" Dorothy asked, raising a forked eyebrow.

"No, this hurts worse than anything we could do to him," Noin remarked with a smirk. "I believe he's empathetic, that's how they've been able to hide so long from us. So whatever the damage, he feels it as badly as they do."

"Interesting..."

"Lu, you aren't seriously considering using that kind of torture?" Une asked incredulously.

"Why not? It's what they deserve for what they did," she replied angrily.

"This is getting just a little too sick for my tastes. I'm out of here," Une said disgustedly, turning on her heel and leaving the cellar.

"Middie!"

"Forget her, she clearly does not understand," Dorothy sighed. "I had hopes for her too, since you spoke so highly of her. Oh well, let's have some fun, shall we?" She leaned her full weight against Trowa's straining body, toying with the collar of his teal turtleneck.

"This needs to go!" She gripped the shirt and ripped the front off, tossing it at Quatre's feet.

Heero did not like the way this was heading. Wufei was trying to placate Duo and Quatre at the same time with whispered words of encouragement and he was stuck, unable to do anything but watch his mother torture the people he close to. He glanced over at Catherine, who stood half hidden in the shadows, concealing the worry she couldn't banish from her expression.

"I hope you have reinforcements somewhere," he muttered, slipping over to the concerned woman.

"I was counting on them to call before they came barreling in here," she murmured back. "But I don't think they did, and I was interrupted before I could."

"Then we're screwed."

"Not yet, there might still-"

Catherine's reply was cut off as Quatre cried out in agony, bringing them back to reality. At first glance, it looked as if Dorothy was running her hands down Trowa's sculpted torso, though the rivulets of blood dripping from her fingertips as she withdrew her nails out of his flesh showed differently.

"HEY! Listen, you frigid bitch, you've had your fun, so let them go!" Duo demanded fiercely, his desperation almost at its peak. "They didn't do anything, I swear to God- It was all me!"

"We really have to end this charade..." Heero sighed heavily, walking over to Dorothy and Noin. "-I- am the one who killed Milliardo and Treize. I took his-" he pointed at the braided slayer, "-gun and shot them."

Absolute silence reined through the basement as Dorothy stared at him, unable to believe what she heard. Then suddenly, she erupted into hysterical laughter that rang like crashing icicles and held a hand to her bosom. "I think that has to be the funniest thing I have ever heard. You, kill them? You nearly gave me a heart attack for a moment there," she chuckled appreciatively. "I know you loathe me, but honestly, no son of mine would -ever- stoop so low as to kill one of their own."

"I did."

"Oh, stop it. You and Catherine take the empath and his little boyfriend out of here, I'm bored with them," she dismissed airily. "Lucrezia, you go find Middie and something to amuse yourselves with, I want these two all to myself for now. Since my pretty pet insists upon it so adamantly." Dorothy smiled coldly, stroking Duo's cheek adoringly as he gagged in disgust.

Heero hesitated at the stairway, adjusting Trowa's dead weight in his arms, "Are you sure you don't want anyone-"

"Go on Heero, listen to your -mother- and get the hell out of here," Wufei sneered convincingly, despite the lead replacing his insides. 'She didn't believe a word he said...now what is she going to do with us?'

Noin's expression curled into a defensive scowl. "I thought we were in this together Dorothy, and it's because of me you're even here in the first place," she argued angrily. "You can't just kick me out like one of your insignificant lackeys."

"Don't worry Lucrezia, I'll leave plenty for you," she replied with a hint of threatening undertone. "I just want a little alone time beforehand, that's all."

The purple-haired vampire stood defiantly in her spot, but after a few seconds she gave a furious huff and followed Heero and Catherine out of the basement.

Wufei was in a blind panic. Here they were, defenseless and bound in chains, in front of a very menacing vampire. "So what are you going to do to us now?"

"It's not 'us', it's 'him'," Dorothy replied smoothly. "You are of no use to me now, I will save your punishment for Lucrezia." She swung her hand back at Wufei and slammed his skull with a cracking blow into the stone wall.

Then all he knew was darkness.

* * *

w00t...and I'm going to leave it there for now...

Reviews are nice! Leave one if you would be so kind...


	9. Chapter 9

Yaay! Another update! I know I left you all hanging with that nasty little cliffhanger, so I worked quickly to get this out. . . And leave another cliffhanger! Haha!

(sweatdrop) Anyway. . . enjoy!

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"I told you so."

"Shut up Heero," Noin snapped waspishly, slamming the basement door shut.

"Why? Because you refused to listen to me before? Look at what your stupidity has caused now," Heero shifted his grip on Trowa's limp form for emphasis. "I know you were angry at what happened, but did you really want to go this far? You know as well as I do how my mother is. This is all your problem now."

She sighed deeply. "I'm aware of that...Middie was right, you were right, I screwed up big time. My emotions got the better of me," she glanced between him and Catherine. "Go take them some place where their people will find them. As much as I hate to say it, this isn't the way to do things. I'm going to go find Middie."

They waited until Noin was completely out of site before turning and walking further into the maze of alleyways behind Midnight Masquerade. It would look rather conspicuous to be walking down a crowded sidewalk carrying unconscious people, something they didn't particularly want.

"So did you really kill them, or was that some cock-and-bull story you used as a last resort?" Catherine asked amusedly.

Heero walked silently for a moment, his face unreadable. "Yeah, I really did. I wasn't kidding earlier when I said Dorothy would kill me when I told her the truth. Unfortunately, she didn't believe a word I said."

"Clearly."

"So is Quatre's apartment closer or are his sisters closer? I know every shortcut in this city and the quicker we get somewhere safe, the quicker we can patch Trowa up," he said shortly, irritated at Catherine's sarcasm. "And the quicker I can get back here to help Duo and Wufei."

"Irea and the others are closer, they have a place in Romafeller Palace apartment complexes," she replied, turnings serious. "We use the back emergency exit, the alarm's disabled and everything, so all we got to do is slip in and we'll be unnoticed."

"Good, that's exactly what we need. Follow me."

They made their way through the back alleys as fast as Catherine could follow carrying Quatre, and not possessing Heero's preternatural strength, it was a bit of a struggle. Thankfully enough, Quatre came to as they approached the back exit, allowing her to put him on his feet so he could walk on his own.

"I feel sick..." he groaned, taking a deep breath to calm himself as they entered the building.

"Don't worry, the elevator's around the corner, we'll take that to Irea's while Heero carries Trowa up stairs," Catherine gave Heero the room number and led Quatre to the elevator. "He's in bad shape, but you know that already, eh?"

"Yeah...I wouldn't be feeling like shit if I didn't," he smiled tiredly, then suddenly started looking around confusedly. "Where's Duo and Wufei? Why aren't they here? I can't sense them."

"Well, you see..."

Quatre's face fell. "They're still back in the club? How could you leave them behind?"

"How were we supposed to do anything without back up?" Catherine said defensively. "Duo and Wufei didn't call Irea or myself like I thought they would, they just rushed out after Heero told them Dorothy had you two. I didn't have a chance to call. We had to get Trowa out of there."

"There isn't anything-"

"Heero is going to go back, but for right now, we're at Dorothy's mercy," she replied uneasily. "We just have to hope she leaves Duo and Wufei alive enough for Noin to do something."

"Noin!" Quatre looked alarmed.

"She's on our side temporarily, she realized she made a mistake," Catherine amended. "It's because of her we were able to get here."

"But-"

The empath was cut off as the elevator doors opened and they were met with quite the disturbing scene. Heero stood in front of Irea's apartment with Trowa still in his arms, in the line of fire of ten guns.

"Irea! You guys! Stop! He's here with us!" he shouted, rushing over with Catherine at his heels. "This is Heero, the one we told you about."

His sister eyed the Japanese vampire then smirked. "Well, that's all he had to say, what were we supposed to think with one of them waltzing up to our hideout carrying Trowa in a bloody mess?"

She ushered them all inside and another one of their sisters hovered over Quatre, bringing him water and sitting him comfortably in a chair before he fainted again. Irea, Catherine, and few others relieved Heero of his burden and carried Trowa into the back where all their medical equipment was.

"Aiesha, can you come back here?" Catherine poked her head out into the living room, and the sister who was caring for Quatre nodded and left him and Heero alone.

"So..."

Quatre glanced over at the Asian at the sound of his voice with a tired smile. He was clearly nervous and on edge, standing in the center of the room with his arm tensely folded over his chest. He didn't blame him for being nervous, he was a vampire in slayer territory and even though he was here of his own volition, it didn't make it any easier.

"Sit down Heero, relax, no one else is going to pull a gun out on you," he said amusedly.

"I apologize," Heero replied gruffly, lowering himself cautiously into the nearest armchair and scanning the surroundings.

"I'm being honest, you can relax. Call me selfish, but your nerves aren't helping me feel any better, and I'm too tired to block both you and Trowa out."

Heero looked contrite and quelled his uneasiness. "You can still feel people even if they aren't close to you?" he asked, trying to keep occupied.

"Yes, for the most part. My family, Duo, and now Wufei, people I'm around a lot or have a connection to, I'm able to keep in touch with them," Quatre answered, his smile brightening. "Trowa is an...intimate connection, I can feel him any where he goes. Now, people whom I don't have close association with, I can only sense within a certain amount of area."

"Understandable." He fell silent for a moment. "I need to go back to the club...I don't know how long it'll be until Dorothy is through having her fun."

He started for the door but Quatre got up. "Wait! Tell me, is she really your mother?"

"Yes, unfortunately. And I hate her for it," Heero scowled, then stalked out of the apartment.

Catherine's curly head popped out into the living room again. "Hey- where'd Heero go?"

"Back to Midnight Masquerade."

"Oh good, I was just going to tell him I called Noin," she looked grim. "Dorothy wasn't down in the basement long and now she's stalling for time so Heero could get Duo and Wufei out of there. She said something was definitely wrong, but she couldn't tell what."

"Oh Allah..."

* * *

Heero ran at full pace through the streets, his chest burning with all the exertion he was putting out. He had gotten an ominous feeling before Catherine had come out and told the empath her news.

The doors to the cellar were left invitingly open for him as he flew down the stairs and nearly slammed right into Noin, who was waiting at the bottom in the entrance.

"That was quick," she said, caught off guard. "I only just got off the phone with Catherine."

"I left after we found a place for the slayers," he replied impatiently, walking around her. "What's going on here?"

"Wufei's in pretty bad shape, but Duo's seems perfectly untouched."

Heero stopped dead in his tracks as he faced the wall. Noin had taken them out of their shackles and laid them on the floor, both were unconscious. She had been right in her assessment of the situation, Duo was practically untouched, the only marks on him were the fading bruises from the metal cuffs and the punch Noin had planted on his face earlier.

It was unnerving to see him so perfectly intact after seeing what Dorothy had done to Wufei. For the first time, Heero experienced something akin to shock and fear as he digested the sight. Maybe it was because he knew Wufei, had been with him at best and worst, and none of his worst times compared to this one, but he felt a pang of pain in his chest that wasn't because his lungs hurt from running hard.

Heero bent down next to Wufei and slid a hand underneath his neck, inhaling sharply at the sticky blood that glued his black hair on to his hand and the back of his throat. There was so much of it, but he could feel Noin's eyes boring questioningly into him from behind at his hesitation as he gingerly sat Wufei up and put his arms in his laps so he could pick up easier. He winced slightly at the broken bones and torn flesh as he felt through his shredded, bloodied clothes before scooping him up off the floor.

"Well, are you going to help, or are you just going to stand there and stare?" he growled, glaring at the purple-haired woman. "I can't carry them both."

"Where are we taking them?"

"Through the back alleys, Catherine investigated the city for my mother and found an area by Romafeller Palace where quite a few slayers seem to hang around," Heero said abruptly, leading the way into the night. "We'll need to hurry, the night's almost over."

Halfway into his return trip to Irea's, they ran into the aforementioned red head.

"Here, let me take him Noin. I know where we're going," Catherine offered.

"Great, I'll go do interference at the club," she shoved Duo gratefully off into the other woman's arms and disappeared.

"That didn't take much convincing," she said dryly.

Quatre had worked himself into a state of near hysterics again by the time they got back to the apartment, having felt Wufei's pain as they approached. He was pacing a hole into the living room carpet, wringing his hands together when the door burst open and Heero and Catherine came pouring in.

"Take him straight to the back, they're just about done patching Trowa up- oh, he looks so awful..." the empath bit his lip hard as Heero vanished down the hall, then turned around to his lover's sister. "Poor Wufei. What about Duo? I can't sense anything wrong."

"There -is- nothing wrong," Catherine replied with a frown, laying the braided slayer's limp form out on the couch.

"Noin and I found him like this, not a scratch except for what he already had. She had just tore into Wufei like a piñata, from the looks of things," Heero remarked as he reentered the room.

Quatre walked over and knelt down beside the couch, inspecting Duo's slack face closely. He took his chin and turned his head from side to side, scanning over his throat but finding nothing. "I don't understand this. I mean, I'm -thrilled- that there's one less person close to me in pain, but it's so...unsettling, especially with Dorothy's history with Duo."

"Well, we're going to have to wait until he or Wufei wakes up and tells us what happened there in the cellar," Catherine shrugged, though her expression matched the disturbance in the empath's voice.

"What history does Duo have with my mother?"

Heero had not forgotten the verbal exchange between the violet-eyed man and Dorothy when she greeted him.

_"I am afraid history is just going to have to repeat itself. Only this time, not only are you not a Maxwell, but you are not even a real slayer! Ironic, no?"_

_"Fuck you! I don't give a shit what you say! I am what I am, no matter how I got here! Let them go and take it out on me, just like you shoulda fucking killed me years ago!"_

Remembering the conversation, he suddenly had an ill feeling that whatever past they shared might have something to do with why he lay unharmed on the couch instead of broken and bloody in the back room with Trowa and Wufei.

"I don't know if we're the appropriate ones to tell you," Catherine answered, still frowning, but not at the Japanese vampire and his question.

"Well, considering our two other wells of knowledge are unable to respond, we don't have much of a choice," Quatre demurred tiredly. "Heero needs to know. Not only is he as deeply involved as anyone else in this apartment, but it -is- his mother also."

The redhead sighed and nodded for him to continue, making herself comfortable in one of the overstuffed armchairs.

"Duo, genetically, really isn't from the Maxwell family, and also isn't a born slayer. He was adopted by the Maxwells when he was really young, we don't know where from. Probably a family that had been killed by the vampires they slayed and left him orphaned. But about ten years ago, Dorothy attacked the Maxwell house, she killed his stepparents and killed his brother Solo right in front of him. Catherine and my sisters raided the house not long after the initial attack. When they found Dorothy and Duo, they were in the middle of a Blood Exchange," Quatre paused, massaging the bridge of his nose to ward off his pounding headache while letting the information sink into Heero's mind. "They drove her off before she could complete the Exchange."

"So Duo is really one of your Tainted slayers?"

"Yes."

Heero sat silently, staring at the couch. It definitely explained why Duo had acted the way he had long ago when they first encountered each other, why he despised him, yet went out of his way to help Wufei, because he had been in the same victimizing situation before. That explained a lot about what happened tonight, why his mother tortured everyone else first. If Dorothy had not had a history with Duo, she would have killed Wufei first, with him being the betrayer, then killed off the slayers without a second thought. But now that he realized the depth of the relationship...finding Duo unharmed is a lot more alarming than it had been an hour ago.

He knew there was no way Dorothy would give up the opportunity to get what she wanted. She was very choosy when it came to the humans she turned, and if Quatre's sisters had stopped her from getting Duo before, then to come upon him again, even ten years later...she would still want her way with him.

As if reading Heero's mind, Quatre spoke up again. "I checked Duo for marks."

"That doesn't mean anything. There won't be marks if bitten a second time."

"What do you mean? You can't bite humans twice, right?"

"Wrong," Catherine sat forward, at attention once more. "There have been cases of twice bitten humans. It's not common at all; there's only a handful of recorded cases in our archives. I think the last recorded one was about fifty years ago. It's different every time, depending on the power of the vampire that's turning the human. In the last case, the vampire was weak and the human went mad and killed himself. I don't know what would happen if someone like Duo were twice bitten by a vampire as powerful as Dorothy is."

"But it was years ago..." Quatre argued worthlessly.

"You know as well as the rest of us that it doesn't really matter," Heero squashed every last argument the blonde could make. "Now, I need to go back to my apartment before dawn, just keep watch and I'll get in contact with you tomorrow night."

"See you later," Catherine waved and the Japanese vampire left. "He does have a point though, we're going to have to keep a constant vigil until Duo wakes up. Just because we -don't- know what happened, it may not be this nasty nightmare we're conjuring up. Dorothy may even have gotten bored after mutilating Wufei, she's like that."

"That's sick," the empath grimaced.

"It's the truth," she grinned darkly. "I've spent enough time around her kind. Why don't you get some sleep, and I'll keep the first watch? I need to debrief Irea and the other of the situation anyway."

"All right, thanks," Quatre smiled wanly and went into the back of the apartment to find an empty bedroom.

* * *

I am so mean sometimes. . .

Review! I love reviews! I'll try not to end the next chapter in another cliffhanger. . . but I can't make any promises! (wink)


	10. Chapter 10

Yaay! New chapter! You guys are –so- going to disown me. XD

Enjoy!

* * *

Heero didn't know if he could put up with his mother any longer. He was sitting at the bar with the account books in his normal nightly routine before Midnight Masquerade opened...and he could hear her obnoxious voice float chillingly down from the upstairs loft as she spoke to Noin and Une.

"Nerve grating, isn't it?" Odin smirked knowingly, sliding into a stool next to him. "I wouldn't blame you if that alone was the reason you ran out on us. You at least have the liberty to leave, I'm stuck with her forever."

"And I've pitied you for it," Heero remarked dryly, snapping his ledger shut.

One of the entrance doors opened and Catherine slipped in, but before she could get out a greeting, her cell phone was ringing loudly.

"Hello?" There was a pause and she paled slightly. "I see...yeah sure, I can do that...all right, talk to you later."

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Odin joked.

"Yeah, that was one of my informants," she lied smoothly, shooting Heero a glance only he would understand. "The slayer named Duo is missing. They blame us for it, I need to know what Dorothy did to him before I go and try to make peace with these people."

"Well, she's upstairs primping herself, so you might want to do it now before I open this place up and she's distracted by all her newfound friends," Heero replied nonchalantly, though his mind was reeling. Duo went missing? How could he just up and go missing from an apartment full of people? "I'll come with you, just because you -are- human, and they'll believe it better if one of our kind came with you."

"Heero, that's suicide!" Odin objected violently, knocking his seat over as he jumped to his feet. "You will not go waltzing into a slayer's territory! That's the exact reason why we have associates like Catherine around!"

His expression went cold. "You don't control what I can and can't do. You never have," he said flatly, his tone matching the stone of his face. The red-haired woman came back downstairs with a neutral frown and Heero rose calmly from his seat, joining her on her way out. "So?"

"Nothing. Dorothy said she didn't know what I was talking about, but I know she's lying through her fanged teeth," Catherine seethed angrily. "How could he just vanish in a few seconds? I sat and kept watch all day. He didn't move a single damnable muscle. I put Lynelle on watch when I left to come here, she's the one who called. She said about twenty minutes after I left he start stirring and she went to go get Irea, and he was gone, just like that."

"Have you considered last night's theory then?"

"No one wants to consider that a possibility, us least of all. Unfortunately, we can't just ignore it, because it's looking more and more like our explanation," she sighed heavily.

"What's going to happen now?" Heero mused darkly.

Catherine had a disturbed expression on her face. "I don't know...but I do know that we're going to have two serious basket cases on our hands when we get back to the apartment."

"Wufei and Quatre," he nodded. "How is Wufei?"

"Both he and Trowa can't leave their beds for a week," she said sympathetically and recounted their sustained injuries. "Irea would like to keep Wufei down for two weeks with the state of his ribs and arm, but she knows she's lucky to even get a week out of that guy."

Heero smirked. "He's quite stubborn when he wants his way."

They were practically attacked by a frazzled Quatre when they entered and he demanded information out of them. They told him of their fruitless questioning, and that they should prepare for the worst.

"We will find a way to fix this!" the empath demurred determinedly. "We were able to help Wufei, so we'll just destroy Dorothy and stop this now."

"That's easier said than done," Heero returned sharply. "I think you don't seriously grasp the severity of this. My mother is vicious and cruel. She fought and killed her way to the place she is now. This is only another amusing game to pass time."

"Yes, well it's better to hope than to despair before you even try anything," Quatre replied crisply.

Before he could think of a response, Irea and Lynelle came out from the back of the apartment looking extremely vexed. "If someone does not go in there and shut that man up, I will murder him!" Irea said dangerously.

Heero took that opportunity to sneak out of the living room before Quatre decided to rip his head off as well. Wufei seemed to have fallen asleep, but the moment he heard approaching footsteps, he cracked a wary onyx eye open to see who it was.

"What the fuck is going on here?" the Chinese man asked angrily, attempting to sit up with an ugly wince.

"Stop it Wufei," Heero said, placing a hand gently on his shirtless chest to keep him down. "I can't allow you to be moving around, Catherine informed me of your week long bed rest."

He muttered curses under his breath and lay still. "I hate this. I hate being helpless and invalid when Duo needs me," Wufei adverted his face away from his intense Prussian gaze, staring at the wall.

"You're not the only one suffering here, so quit it with this 'Woe is me' act," Heero remarked harshly, a far cry from the delicate touch he had on Wufei's injured ribcage. "We're doing everything we can, and that's not much. Until we find him and figure out what's wrong, we're at a loss. The best thing you can do to help him is listen to Irea and the others and stay in bed. Let yourself heal up properly so you can fight your best."

"Are -you- giving me advice on a slayer's best fighting techniques?" Wufei said dryly, sending the vampire a sly smile. "You might want to watch yourself, Dorothy might come after you next and leave you like I am."

"What? No 'Thank you Heero for saving my life and putting your life at stake, no pun intended, more than once for us' or 'Thank you for being such a good friend even though you should be tearing my throat open'..."

Wufei turned a shameful shade of red. "I'm sorry," he sighed tiredly. "I seem to be apologizing a lot lately, and it's always to you."

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Heero replied, pretending to be hurt and started to pull his hand back.

"No! I didn't mean it like that-" he instinctively went to reach with the arm closest to the Japanese man, his shattered left, but failed and let out a low groan. "Fuck."

"Wufei-"

"Come on you two, some people are actually listening to doctor's orders and sleeping," Trowa grumbled suddenly, his voice full of sleep. "Try to think of it as a much needed vacation. Rather unconventional, but a vacation nonetheless."

"I would rather be out on the streets searching for Duo than on a vacation," Wufei drawled, saying the word 'vacation' as if it were something particularly foul.

"But you can't so get used it."

The Asian snorted, irritated and clearly in pain. As if on cue, Irea came creeping back in carrying several bottles of medications and fresh swathing. "Is it safe to come in here?" she asked amusedly.

"Here, I'll get out of your way-" Heero stood and made to leave.

"Don't you go anywhere, I need to you to assist me," Irea said, setting her things on the nightstand between the two beds. "You're the only one here I can trust with lifting them."

"How will I do it?" he asked, full of trepidation. "I'll hurt them."

"Not if you're patient and careful," she smiled warmly before going into full doctor mode. "Now Trowa's shoulder is completely immobilized, so you can lift him like normal, you just have to be soft when touching his shoulder and lift -very- slowly. I don't want any of those stitches in his torso to pop on me. Wufei's going to be difficult because...well, he's a difficult man. I can't help that one."

"I resent that," Wufei said scornfully.

"No, you -resemble- that," Trowa corrected smoothly, showing no change in expression as Heero sat him up as instructed, holding all his weight so the stitches didn't snap as Irea changed his bandages.

"All right, for Wufei, go over to the other side of the bed so you're not sitting against his left arm," Irea advised. "Support him with your arm along his spine, kind of like cradling a baby. It'll probably be best if you sit down behind him and lean him against your chest, I need him totally upright so I can look at the back his head properly."

Wufei felt awkward as the Japanese vampire slipped in behind him, one leg on either side of him, without jarring any of his injuries and settled him in the position Irea asked for, flush up against his warm body. He sat like this with Duo, when he would sit with him watching a movie or when his braided lover was in a particularly cuddly mood and crawled up into his lap when he was trying to read. To make it even worse, he was also aware of exactly how comfortable it was, and he felt dually guilty over his easy coziness when it wasn't Duo he was feeling it with...especially since he was almost naked.

He had known that what had been left of his shirt had been cut off so they could wrap up his ribs, but he hadn't realized that the Winner sisters had stripped him of his pants also, leaving him in naught but a thin pair of boxers.

Thankfully, Irea made quick work of changing the gauze on his head and doing what other adjustments necessary, though before Heero could get up and lay him back down, Quatre came in.

"We've got a problem," he said, his eyes shining with moisture. "A BIG problem. Catherine just got off the phone with Noin and Une. Clients coming into the club have been in an uproar over a renegade vampire killing others of their kind all over the city."

"Does anyone know what he looks like?" Wufei asked faintly, the sick, ominous knot in his stomach tightening painfully.

Tears slid down the blonde's cheeks as he sat on Trowa's bed. "A male with a slight build, thigh length brown hair, and violet eyes."

"Duo..."

* * *

"I'm glad you've finally come to your senses about things, for real this time," Une said, arching an eyebrow as she assisted her purple haired lover in closing up Midnight Masquerade.

"Yeah, well, you guys were right, I was wrong," Noin replied sourly, tossing her hand towel in a bin under the counter. "It was undignified to stoop to such low levels, even if they are slayers...and Dorothy just came in and took everything over. I nearly lost it all, and revenge just isn't worth it."

"How about we focus on a way to get rid of our...problem?" she muttered, kissing her on the back of her neck as she wrapped her arms around her waist.

"It's not that easy," Noin frowned. "We don't even know what really happened last night. Odin told me about earlier when Catherine came in."

"Everything's gotten out of hand, and we're stuck in the middle of it," Une shrugged, trying to be indifferent in spite of their precarious situation. "We just have to find a way to get ourselves out of this mess, somehow."

"Somehow being the key word," she remarked, reveling in her partner's warm embrace for a moment before grabbing a ring of keys off a hook on the wall. "Let me finish locking up, and then we can go upstairs. Tomorrow we'll think more about saving our asses."

Noin slid over the marble topped bar and walked over to the double doors. However, as she stuck the key into the lock, the doors blasted open and sent her flying back across the room.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Noin snapped angrily, glaring up at the imposing intruder. Shock instantly replaced the fury and all the color drained out of her face as her mind registered the sight in front of her.

"Lu...I think we should go upstairs now..." Une said numbly, completely fixated on the man she thought she recognized.

It was Duo, the person they had just been discussing, materialized before them as if summoned by their mere mentioning. Though it definitely wasn't the same slayer they had fought with last night.

He was lethally beautiful, with his unbraided hair falling in a glow of chestnut waves around him and an unearthly luminescence to his alabaster skin, but one look at his expression killed that divine radiance in an instant. Not even Dorothy at her finest could top the eloquently carved features of pure ice and calculated death that was his face.

Noin found herself utterly incapable of pulling herself back onto her feet. It was as if she were paralyzed in his amethyst gaze. And for the first time, she felt true fear.

"Ah, my darling, I was wondering when you would show up," Dorothy greeted dramatically, fluttering into the heavy standoff with unconcern about what was going on around her. "He'll be staying with me upstairs, I've sent Odin off to stay with Heero again."

The other women regained their senses as the blonde fawned over her new pet.

"Are you absolutely INSANE?" Une asked incredulously. "Do you know what you have done here?"

"Of course I do," Dorothy smiled winsomely, her fingers entwined in Duo's halo of hair as she held him close, now a lifeless doll at her mere touch. "I did what I do best. Whatever I want, whenever I want. Nobody can stop me. Now the real war begins."

* * *

Buwahahaha...what evil scheme is she plotting now! (dun dun dun)

I really like reviews. :) Even if they're flames, because flames only serve to amuse me.


	11. Chapter 11

Buwahaha! A new chapter!

There is some slight...sexually graphic moments in this chapter, so younger readers are fairly warned!

Enjoy!

* * *

Heero was glad to have the club to distract him for a while. He had barely made it back to his underground flat the night before, with the mess Wufei and Quatre were stirring up in the wake of Catherine's information. The blonde had even called his home first thing after sunset, telling him that he had gone back to their apartment where their historical files were kept, trying to find a different remedy to their situation.

So far, he was having no luck.

Heero only escaped being forcibly enlisted to help out by saying he had to stop into Midnight Masquerade before he did anything else. He actually did hope he could get something out of his mother, if she was willing to talk. He had the nasty feeling that she was only going to feign innocence as per the norm, but he could still attempt it, and it would kill time before he had to go back and face Wufei and the others.

"YUY!"

Noin came charging up to him, stopping him in his tracks with a hand flat against his chest and a highly disturbed look on her face. "We have a problem!"

"Why am I hearing that phrase so much lately?" he muttered darkly, frowning. "Why are you so upset?"

"Well, we were going to find you last night when it happened, but it was so late, and you didn't come back with Catherine, so Middie and I assumed it took longer than expected with the slayers," the purple-haired woman said in a rush, her expression turning anxious. "That guy, Duo, he's here, in the club! Dorothy turned him! He came busting through the doors last night when we closed and threw me across the bar, but the moment Dorothy came in the room, he was her little puppet. He went to her and her hold him and pet him like a toy!"

Shock trilled through his limbs and desperation kicked in, though outwardly Heero was the perfect picture of stoicism. "Where are they now?"

"Inside, it's terrible," Noin grabbed him by the arm and wretched him down the sidewalk. "She's talking some shit about getting rid of 'unworthy' vampires, a 'holy cleansing', I think that's how she put it. That it should be about the purebloods and the elder vampires, that new ones should be wiped out and that the slayer is her weapon to do it."

"What! She hasn't killed anyone in Midnight Masquerade, has she?"

"No, not yet anyway, but I do think that we're going to have a repeat of last night, with that -thing- roaming the streets and killing vampires off," she replied, agitated as she released her hold.

Heero threw open the doors to the club and stalked inside. Being late as he was, they had already opened the place and there were people everywhere. Une was behind the bar, where Noin made a beeline to, and she had the same worried expression on her face as her lover did.

Odin materialized out of the crowd and found himself in quite the predicament as his son snatched him up by his collar in a death grip.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Heero demanded coldly, glaring. "I leave yesterday to calm our situation down, and I come back to my mother not only coveting the man I was searching for last night, but that she really did turn him into one of us AND she's declaring war!"

"I have nothing to do with this!" Odin rasped out angrily. "I'm just as furious as you are about it! I've tried talking some sense into Dorothy, but she won't listen to me!"

"Convenient," he remarked, letting go of his shirt roughly.

"I'm telling you the truth," the elder man replied, massaging his throat. "In fact, I'm on my way out. I want nothing to do with your mother and her idiotic schemes, so I'm returning to Europe. Hopefully it won't be ten years before we see each other again."

"Spare me the pity act. Ten years is not but a blink of an eye for you," Heero said flatly. "I hope it's a lot longer than that before I have to deal with you and my mother again."

He turned sharply on his heel and pushed his way into the throng of people, moving around tables and couches while he scanned for Duo. Of course. There was Dorothy, at a table situated just right and commanded a view of the entire room. There were many simpering vampires hanging around, so that he couldn't get a good look as he approached. But the moment he got close, two women stepped away and he was struck like lightning by the sight that was the 'new' Duo.

He had been changed out of the clothes he had last seen him in, he was swathed now with a loose button up silk shirt of deep violet that electrified the almost violent amethyst color of his eyes and painted on black leather pants that left nothing to the imagination. His hair was still down, unbound, in curtains of shimmering chestnut around him as he sat in repose, his arms stretched out on the top of the couch.

Duo spoke to no one, only sitting there looking pretty with Dorothy next to him, her hand on his thigh like it was super-glued in a sign of absolute possessiveness as she chatted with the group about her.

Once Heero mind registered that final fact, he remembered to breath and the reason he had come barging up through the club to get to her. Anger instantly returned, momentarily shattering his utter fascination. "Dorothy!" he barked harshly, shoving the last few people aside that were in his way and standing before the two on the chair. "What is this bullshit?"

"Hello to you too," she smiled slyly, then gestured at the free space on the other side of Duo. "Come, have a seat, talk with me." Everyone around them vanished quickly as she waved them off.

Heero was frozen to the spot as the former slayer's piercing purple eyes bore into his like lasers.

"Isn't he just perfect?" His mother gloated, the hand she had attached to his thigh brushing up and down and his gaze went from Heero to her. "I think this one is a keeper."

That brought Heero back with a snap. He dropped down heavily to the couch, weighing his words to decide how not to sound suspicious. "Do you realize what the hell you've done here? All the hard work from centuries of secrecy, something like this is going to throw the balance between us and the slayers into total chaos and soon the whole world will know about things humans can't handle."

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do," Dorothy said airily. "We, the powerful, should be in control, not hiding in the shadows like monsters! We should rule and humans and slayers be our servants. And Duo here will help me, he will eliminate the weak ones of our kind and show just how much better he is now that he's one of us. His traitorous lover and his friends will come running to get him back, and I'll make Duo kill them all one by one."

"You are fucking mental," Heero said, his voice disdainful. "Duo, you can't possibly agree to all this?"

The slayer didn't even acknowledge that the Japanese vampire had spoken to him, he still stared unblinkingly at Dorothy like a statue as she laughed lightly. "Heero, Heero, Heero...you don't understand, do you? I tainted him twice before I turned him; he's completely under my power. As you can see, he doesn't even move or speak without my influence," she chuckled.

"You sound so sure of yourself," he replied stonily, hating this situation more and more as time passed.

"I am," Dorothy smiled smugly. "The only way to get him back would be to kill me. Well, unless he killed himself...but I don't see that happening."

"They're going to stop you, you know," Heero remarked, silently fuming. "The slayers are a lot more powerful than you make them out to be."

"What makes you think that?" she asked suspiciously, narrowing her icy blue eyes at him.

"I spoke with them last night with Catherine, remember? Trying to fix -this- problem that I thought didn't exist, because they were blaming us for Duo's disappearance. I guess that was a waste of time," he glowered. "They can surprise you, mother, so I wouldn't be so flippant about the slayers."

"I think -you- are the one who is mental," Dorothy shot back, amused. "Maybe Duo here can...persuade you to change your mind. Darling, have some fun with my son while I go socialize." She finally removed her hand from his leg and stood, walking off onto the dance floor.

As if a switch had been flipped, Duo's unwavering attention locked on to Heero like a gun scope. He didn't know whether to be disgusted at the level of control Dorothy had over his friend now, or to fear for his life, because he now knew what it felt like to be looked at like prey by a predator.

He had once thought like his mother, back when he gave Wufei so much hell over being a weak man and he himself killed mercilessly. But so much was different because of Wufei and Duo...and now...He knew there -had- to be some piece of Duo left in the person prowling across the couch towards him, a piece that loathed this situation as much as he did. He knew Duo didn't think a thing at all like Dorothy, and he was suddenly glad that Wufei was stuck in bed at Irea's instead of here.

"Duo, listen to me, we're going to get you out of this," Heero said, almost desperate as the slayer slid into his lap, pinning him against the chair with his legs straddling him around the waist. His hair encircled him, filling his nose with the thick scent of lavender vanilla and he was lost in the purple haze of his eyes.

"Don't speak, just have fun with me," Duo purred seductively, leaning in so close that their noses touched and their bodies were pressed tightly together.

Heero's heart was beating a billion miles per second. "D- Duo- the others- Wufei-" he managed to whisper, but his choked words instantly died as Duo's soft hand covered his mouth.

"Shh, I said don't speak..."

He removed the hand, replacing it with his equally petal soft lips and he ran his fingers from Heero's unruly hair to his chest and torso. Grinding their hips together, his kisses moved down his chin and hovered particularly long over the sensitive areas of his throat.

Heero -was- insane. Or he had just gone insane. All he could coherently comprehend was that his arms had wrapped around Duo's waist in a crushing grip and the sensations the slayer was eliciting from him were feelings he had never felt even on his best kills.

The image of a certain seriously injured Chinese man broke through his sexual euphoria and he went stock-still, reality crashing down upon him like a glacial waterfall. "Stop this, Duo! Wufei is the one you love and he's frantic with worry about you!"

Duo rubbed up a little harder on his groin. "Forget about them! It's all about us now," he replied huskily, leaning down to recapture his lips again but Heero turned his head away and stood up with him still wrapped around his midsection, dropping him rather unceremoniously onto the couch.

"You're wrong, it's all about what Dorothy commands you to do," he spat roughly, his flushed visage betraying his inner turmoil. "I'm leaving."

"NO!" Duo moved like lightning and suddenly materialized in front of him, shoving him onto the chair, sprawled flat out on his back with the wind knocked out of him as he climbed on and pinned him down. "I didn't say I was done with you yet. You can't leave me."

Heero's inner turmoil turned angry, this definitely wasn't the Duo he knew. "Fuck off, -you- can't tell me what to do. -I- said I'm leaving," he made to get up, but found that the slayer was...stronger than him. He couldn't get the inhuman thing on top of him to budge an inch with him using all his strength to hold him down.

Now he was little afraid.

Scratch that. Very afraid.

How could he possibly be stronger than him?

Duo was leaning in close again, but before he could do anything, Dorothy's voice filtered in over the sound of people and music.

"My darling, come over here and keep me company for a while," she said cheerfully, standing over to two. "Seeing you have so much fun with my son is making me rather jealous. You can play with him again another time."

The switch turned and as if nothing at all had happened, Duo was on his feet and following the blonde over to the new table she has seized without another word.

Heero remembered to breathe. This was a potentially lethal situation he had gotten himself into, but at least now he had a grasp of what was going on and the slayers wouldn't be left in the dark anymore. He got up hastily and ran out of Midnight Masquerade as fast as he could, his destination Irea's apartment.

* * *

(dun dun dun) What going to happen now! How will Wufei react! Will Heero even tell Wufei how bad Duo is!

Haha, sorry, I watch too many soap operas. The next chapter will certainly be fun.

Reviews are nice! I feellike a crappy authoresswith only three or four reviews a chapter when I know how many people are reading this. (pout)

Also, for some more developing slashy-goodness, check out my Harry Potter fic!


	12. Chapter 12

New chapter goodness! Not much action, more emotional, filler stuff.

Enjoy!

* * *

Quatre sat tiredly in the living room, sipping at his lukewarm tea. He had spent the day alternating between hauling their extensive library from their apartment to Irea's and juggling doctor duties with his sisters.

As much as he wanted to figure out what was going on, he couldn't bear to be too far away from Trowa. His empathetic abilities were at their limits with blocking out the pains of his lover and Wufei while trying to leave himself open to any sign of Duo.

Which led him to this moment. Physically and emotionally drained, all the empath wanted to do was take some time to rest and keep himself calm. Just as he closed the book he had been reading and stood to go make himself a fresh cup of tea, he was flooded with a barrage of feelings, all equally intense and growing stronger by the second.

There was fear, distress, anger, disgust, and desperation...and they just burst through the front door.

Heero flew into the room like a bat out of Hell, all of his usual composed coolness nonexistent. His hair was even more unruly than normal, his shirt untucked, and he looked utterly shell-shocked. As soon as his Prussian gaze landed on the blonde, he was at his side in an instant.

"Quatre, where is everyone?"

"I- uh- well, the women are all out doing their duties since I'm here keeping watch, and Trowa and Wufei are asleep," Quatre replied, taken aback as he wordlessly coaxed the Japanese vampire to sit on the couch with him.

"Good, Wufei doesn't need to hear about this right now, not in his condition," Heero continued apprehensively. "I was just at Midnight Masquerade...it's worse than we expected Quatre, it's so much worse."

The empath's heart clenched painfully. "Is it Duo?"

"Well, it -looks- like him and -sounds- like him...All the lights were on, but no one was home, if you know what I mean," he twitched perceptively as he recapped from the time Noin approached him up until now when he came running through the door. "He didn't even acknowledge Wufei's existence. I told him to stop, he had Wufei, and all he could say was 'Forget about him, it's all about us now.' I just didn't know what to do but get here as fast as I could."

"I understand, I would have done the same," Quatre smiled, albeit sadly. "This really is a dreadful situation, I don't think anywhere in our records is there something like this. We're going to have to make up our own rules from now on..." He suddenly got a furious scowl, startling Heero. "Dorothy is dead. We're going to kill her even if it's the last thing we ever do."

"But would you be able to kill Duo if she sent him after you like she did to me tonight?" Heero asked bluntly.

"No, I know I wouldn't be able to. Neither would Wufei, Trowa, Catherine, or any of my sisters," he sighed. "That's why we need to kill her before she has the opportunity to use him against us. We're going to try our best not to hurt him if we can, he's going to be hurting enough once he comes back to his senses and realizes what she forced him to do."

"No kidding," the Japanese vampire replied darkly.

"I wish Irea and Catherine were here," Quatre said, worry creasing his brow. "My hands are tied right now with Wufei and Trowa out of commission, so it's not like we can go rushing out into the night with a half-assed plan that always seems to work."

"I would have never guessed that your plans were half-assed," Heero smirked. "They worked out fine, didn't they?"

"Yes, but most of the time when it's a crazy situation like this, they're just some harebrained scheme Duo and I concoct on a whim and we do it because it we have nothing better to do," the blonde shrugged.

"And here I was believing you slayers were intelligent, persistent little bastards."

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble on that," Quatre chuckled depreciatively. "I'm just joking, that really only happens when we -are- in situations where we don't know what to do, so we fly by the seat of our pants to save our necks. Pure instinct."

Heero watched his frankly expressive features turn sad again and stood up abruptly. "I apologize Quatre, I've added on to your already heavy burden, I should have waited," he muttered contritely and started back for the door.

"Quatre?"

Heero paused at the sound of Wufei calling out to him, mistaking his voice for the empath's. He was the last person he could face right now.

"Heero- wait, you don't have to leave, you aren't causing me any suffering-" Quatre tried vainly, following him to the front door, but had it shut on him.

"Quatre? What in the hell's going on?"

He grimaced. Why did Wufei have to wake up so damn grumpy all the time? Especially now in his incapacitated state, he was being particularly nerve racking.

"Don't worry about it, it was Heero leaving," Quatre said soothingly, peering in to the bedroom.

"What did he have to say?" Wufei asked irritably.

"Nothing, so -don't- worry about it," he replied, clucking his tongue. "Heero was only dropping in to check up on you and Trowa."

"Bullshit, you're an open book, and you look like your dog just died," the Chinese man remarked candidly, attempting to appear menacing and failing brilliantly. It was hard to seem scary when you're in pain and swathed in bandages.

"All right, fine, he was updating me on what was going on," Quatre responded peevishly, crossing his arms huffily. "That's all. So don't work yourself up into a conniption fit over it."

"Why shouldn't I! It's obviously something I SHOULD be concerned about!" Wufei said hotly. "It's about Duo, isn't it!"

The empath hesitated painfully, and that was all it took for the Asian to fully comprehend the severity of Heero's news. "Well I tried," he sighed, sadly looking at Wufei's aggrieved features.

"I really don't want to know, do I?" he swallowed audibly.

"Not right now, no," Quatre replied sympathetically. "But if you want..."

"No, don't tell me," Wufei winced, the tone of his voice miserable. "I have a feeling that once I know, I'll want to get up and do something...which I obviously can't in this state. It'll only make it worse."

"Just concentrate on getting well, you'll be up and out of here before you realize it. Trust me, I want out there just as much as you do," the blonde said with evident frustration. "Now let me check your bandages..."

* * *

Noin and Une had watched the scene between Dorothy, Duo, and Heero with mounting horror. When the Japanese vampire fled the club, Noin turned to her lover.

"Keep an eye out here, I'm going to find Catherine," she instructed, giving her a soft kiss before departing after Heero. She pulled out her cell phone as soon as she hit the pavement and dialed the red-haired woman's number.

/Hello/

"Catherine, where are you? I need you now, there's trouble."

/What's going on/

"I can't tell you over the phone, just tell me where you are or some place close to Masquerade where we can meet up."

/Well, I'm out towards the Chinese district right now, so let's meet halfway at the little café you showed me the other night. See you in a few./

Noin felt her anxiety curdling in her gut as she rushed through crowds and traffic to a little funky café called Victoria, a place where her and Une often escaped to when they weren't needed at the club and they could get some -uninterrupted- privacy. This wasn't exactly the type of situation she wished to be in when going to her escape spot, but it would have to do.

When she got to Victoria, Catherine had already been there and gotten them a quiet table set slightly away from everyone else in the café. The other woman was the epitome of coolness, sipping on some steaming coffee as she sat down.

"So enlighten me," Catherine greeted, raising an eyebrow at the purple-haired woman's clear distress.

"The whole world's gone to shit, is that enlightening enough?" Noin replied dryly, then launched into her tale about how she had opened for Heero, and Dorothy's conversation with her about her ultimate plans, then of the spectacle Duo created in front of everyone.

By the time she was through, Catherine's calm mood had melted away and she mirrored Noin's uneasiness. "So let me get this straight. She has absolute control over him? Like a marionette puppeteer? And he's STRONGER than Heero?" she muttered, alarmed. "I may be new to town, but with the obvious exception of Dorothy, and formerly Milliardo and Treize, no one in this city is stronger than Heero."

"Not any more," Noin sighed heavily, massaging her temples. "Right now, we've got an extremely fucked up situation."

"Do you know where Heero ran off to?" Catherine asked cautiously.

"Who knows where that guy runs off to, he's notorious for vanishing without a trace. Honestly, Middie and I have tried to follow him and he's just gone like that-" she snapped her fingers. "-he's probably out hiding in some secret spot like this café."

The red-haired woman inwardly breathed with relief. At least he didn't give away their whereabouts in his flight, because she knew the first destination he would stop at was the apartment and Wufei.

'Oh great, we're going to have handful when we get home tonight,' Catherine thought with a groan. 'If Wufei finds out what happened...'

"So what's going to be done about it?" she said aloud.

"I think Middie and I are going to wait until Heero comes back around," Noin replied tiredly. "He would be our best bet on planning anything against his mother. No one knows her better than him except for Odin, but he left for Europe earlier tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he wants nothing to do with Dorothy while she's scheming like this, so he told her when she was through playing, he'd be waiting back home for her," she shrugged.

"Interesting," Catherine frowned, then stood up. "All right, well I'll go out and try to track down our mauled friend. We can't wait on Heero to come around if this mess is as serious as you say it is, so we're going to have to drag him in. Just go back to Midnight Masquerade and be with Middie as if nothing happened. This conversation didn't happen."

"I understand," the purple-haired woman nodded and joined her outside. "I'll see you later."

"Indeed. Thanks for the info," Catherine waved and vanished into the crowd.

Hopefully Heero was still at the apartment. Right about now she wasn't in the mood to be running all over the city trying to locate him when she had better things she could be doing. Unfortunately, those better things involved him, so either way she was stuck having to find Heero.

* * *

Fun stuff!

Reviews are nice! Feed this authoress' ego and leave me one!


	13. Chapter 13

Hey guys! Sorry for the long delay in updates, I just got through with midterms and my fall break, so I didn't have much time to write. I think this chapter will more than make up for it. (evil grin)

Enjoy!

* * *

The two weeks passed with an ominous calm.

After Heero's encounter with Duo in the club, he had taken to avoiding both Midnight Masquerade and Irea's apartment. He didn't want to run into his mother or Duo, nor did he want to be confronted by Wufei and Quatre's sisters. He had passed on the information as was necessary, that's all.

It seemed that the incident was Dorothy last mind game as she withdrew from the social realm to the upstairs apartment to plan her 'war'. Duo had vanished as well from public view and the violent deaths of vampires all over the city had ceased for the time being.

That was when Catherine decided to barge into Heero's underground abode. She picked the lock on his front door and waltzed in just as he was coming out of his bedroom, his face dark with anger.

"What gives you the right to invade my privacy?" Heero demanded harshly. "How in the hell did you even find out where I lived?"

"Hello? Who are you talking to?" the redheaded woman replied sarcastically. "The slayer spy who pretends to work as Dorothy's human secretary. Since I'm 'vouched for' by her, your kind trust me with everything. Of course, it probably helps that I asked Lucrezia." She smirked, putting her hands on her hips.

The Japanese vampire muttered something along the lines of 'I forgot about that' as he slouched over to the couch and flopped down on it. "So what do you want? You obviously tracked me down for a reason," he said sullenly.

"God, you are either extremely thickheaded, or trying to purposely piss me off to no end," Catherine sighed with exasperation. "I think I'll go with option number two. I'm here because your mother is coming out of her shell tonight. She's got something planned, and no one knows what it is except for her new personal toy. Trowa and Wufei are up and moving again, so we've been getting them up to speed on everything."

Torment showed clearly through Heero's mask of irritation. "Does Wufei know...?"

"Yes, he knows about you and Duo," she responded, her stiff stature drooping slightly. "He actually took it quite well, all things considered. Didn't blow up or break anything or run out rashly to pick a fight. He also said to tell you to stop avoiding him, he knows what you're up to."

"But I-"

"I won't take no for an answer, so get your ass up now and stop wallowing around here by yourself," Catherine interrupted loudly. "We've got a fight to plan, and we need you to help us."

"And if I say no?" Heero asked, his annoyance returning. "What could -you- possibly threaten -me- with to get me to cooperate?"

"You would be brutally letting down two people whom I know you care about," she pointed out calmly. "Do you really want to sit here and do nothing while Dorothy destroys Duo's mind and Wufei blames himself for everything?"

Heero's glare bore into her like a laser. "You play dirty."

"Naturally. So are you coming?" Catherine smiled with satisfaction.

"Like I have a choice in the matter," he grumbled, standing up and grabbing his leather jacket from the closet before they left.

* * *

Wufei sighed with heavy relief as he stepped out from the steaming shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. It really was amazing how a proper bath could completely rejuvenate a person, especially someone who had been stuck lying immobile on his back for a straight two weeks after being beaten to a bloody pulp.

The lower half of his arm was still in a brace, being the most damaged, but it was still usable as long as he didn't put too much force onto it. Good thing he wasn't left-handed, or he'd be screwed. His head and ribcage had healed up nicely though, and all the stitches were gone.

Wufei hesitated at the door to the bedroom he shared with Duo. When Quatre had finally told him everything after Irea had given him a full bill of health and said they could return to their own apartment, he wasn't quite sure how to react. He certainly did not blame Heero, if anything, he sympathized the Japanese vampire because now he had a taste of what it feels like to be the victim for a change, instead of the attacker. Wufei's pain at the mental image of Duo, however, was almost crippling if he let himself dwell on it too long. He hated Dorothy with a passion that would make the gods cower before it, he hated that she had this power over the one he loved, perverting and abusing him like she was. His heart ached even more at how he knew Duo would feel if he ever remembered what he had done under her command.

Lost in his musing, he entered their bedroom, picking up some random articles of clothing as he tossed aside his towel and threw them on. The unmistakable scent of lavender vanilla filled his nose as he pulled the shirt over his head, Wufei had grabbed one of Duo's long sleeved shirts, and suddenly the thought that he had refused to acknowledge occurred to him that if they failed in their plans...

He would be alone again.

He wouldn't have someone to sleep with, some one who he could wrap himself up in a cocoon with and revel in the warmth and love that they shared with each other. He wouldn't wake up with his angel laying beside him, cursing sleepily about the early hour. He wouldn't have someone who hid all his books so he wouldn't have an excuse not to watch his cheesy horror movies. No more Shinigami.

That was how Heero located him when he came to the apartment with Catherine. They had entered with Irea, whom they met up with along the way, and one glance at Quatre and Trowa's downcast expressions sent him searching for his Chinese friend.

The pain in the room was palpable when Heero entered and found the person in question sitting on his bed. He had never seen him so wretched before.

"Did a bomb go off in here?" he greeted tentatively, taking in Duo's disastrously messy touch as compared to his partner's neat orderliness.

Wufei's head snapped up, startled out of his reverie. Suddenly, Heero found himself with an armful of human body as Wufei broke down in tears against his chest, holding onto him as if his life depended on it.

Angry, violent Wufei he could handle. Verbal sparring and sarcasm he could handle, it was one of their favorite forms of entertainment when they were bored or annoyed with each other. He had even gotten used to putting up with the utter cheerfulness that Wufei always had whenever he saw him with Duo. But this desperate need for comfort was a whole new arena, and all Heero could think to do was pat him awkwardly on the back as his green tank top was soaked in hot tears.

After a moment or two, Wufei seemed to relax a bit and quiet down. "I'm sorry, Heero, I- I don't know what came over me just now," he murmured roughly, pulling away as he wiped his face with his palms. "I just made a fool of myself."

Heero frowned. "Don't say that. You shouldn't be ashamed of allowing yourself to feel hurt. You've lost the person closest to you, how else are you supposed to act?" he reached out and touched Wufei's shoulder. "Even the strong are allowed their moments of weakness."

"I know...it's just hard, the realization that if this doesn't work out..." He turned his clouded onyx gaze away from the Japanese vampire. "I never realized how much I took for granted until we came back here and I didn't find Duo watching TV in the living room, or in here sleeping, or...how I never felt lonely anymore. I don't think I could stand being alone again."

"We'll figure something out. In the off chance that it doesn't...well, I can be there for you," Heero said cautiously. "Of course, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted nothing to do with me after everything we've been through."

A warm sensation went through him as Wufei's troubled eyes turned back to him and a smile graced his anguished features. "I should hope that you'd be sticking around when this is all said and done, I never thought otherwise."

Heero slowly smiled in return and they walked out of the bedroom and rejoined everyone in the living room. The atmosphere in there was significantly more strung out than the one they left, Heero and Wufei had walked in to the middle of their discussion.

"-it's been like a bloodstained hurricane all over the city," Irea was saying, her hands clenched together in her lap. "Lynelle and the others are out right now checking the situation out until we can put some sort of plan together."

"What's going on?" Wufei asked, taking a seat and hoping no one would notice he had been crying just minutes before.

"All hell's broken loose," Catherine replied simply. "As soon as the sun set, violent attacks against erupted everywhere, in known vampire hangouts. It's like a mass genocide, and so far it's all been by one person."

"By Duo," Heero said frankly, not at all surprised as Catherine and Irea agreed. "So Dorothy's finally made her move."

"Wufei, are you all right?" Quatre asked worriedly.

The Chinese man was scarily pale, as if he were about to be ill. "I'm...fine. But Dorothy won't be when I'm through with her," he stood up abruptly and stalked with jerky steps to the hall closet, where all their weapons were stored. He threw open the door and snatched up his gun holsters, trenchcoat, and other various objects before treating the front door in the same manner as the closet.

"Wait, Wufei- I'll come with you," Heero remarked, walking over brusquely. "I know all the places they might be, or have already hit. It'll go quicker that way."

"Are you willingly just going to join the ranks of traitors?" Trowa inquired amusedly, arching an eyebrow. "You realize in doing this, and your kind find out, you're going to be black listed faster than you can say Cuban cigars."

Ignoring his bad joke, he only shrugged. "I don't care. We just need to stop this before it gets any worse, no matter what the cost."

"But we don't even have a plan yet!" Quatre argued in vain.

"Then you guys think of something, Heero and I will go on our own," Wufei said impatiently, starting to leave. "You'll know if we run into any trouble."

"And how do you know where to find them, eh?" Catherine responded casually. "I'm going too, it'll save you some time."

The three exited despite the empath's wavering protests. The streets seemed eerily empty as the apartment complex disappeared from view. Even the night sky was discontent as a storm brewed, spitting out the occasional bit of lightning and thunder.

"Where have they hit so far?" Heero asked flatly, his eyes darting warily around them.

"Well, the club first, but there weren't too many casualties," she sighed. "Most of the younger vampires that knew they weren't 'worthy' have been avoiding Midnight Masquerade since Dorothy holed up two weeks ago. Noin and Une threw a fit over it. Then there was that one hotel, Metro Court, were the rich types throw their little soirées. An old house out in the suburbs, I think it's the same one you guys had your little...incident."

"There's no pattern to this whatsoever," the Japanese vampire muttered, annoyed as he mulled over the sites. "How are we supposed to predict their next target?"

Wufei's step slowed, a look of dawning comprehension on his face. "Heero, think about it. All those places...those were all places where Duo and I have run into you, or met you at."

"How can that..." Heero trailed off, scowling. "Of course, my mother has probably searched through Duo's memories. She probably already knows about my association then."

"I'm sorry Heero," he said apologetically.

"Don't be. I really have nothing to hide any more," Heero replied noncommittally, brushing it off and changing the subject. "We should check out Chasing the Dragon, if they're going to places we've been, and they haven't been there yet, that's our best bet."

"That's on the other side of the city!" Catherine objected, exasperated. "It'll take us ages to get there. Dorothy and Duo will have been there and annihilated everyone by the time we get there."

"And that's why I'm here," he shot back dryly. "Shortcuts."

They ducked into the nearest alleyway and Catherine and Wufei followed Heero's fast moving form, weaving through the labyrinth of side streets. In a third of the time it normally took, they stopped behind the little bar out of sight.

"What will we do if they are in there?"

"Act like normal. Let Dorothy make the first move, then we can kill her," Wufei stated, the tone of his voice a dangerous calm. "We won't-"

"Shush!"

The uneasy feeling Heero had since they left the apartment overwhelmed his senses and he spun around on the spot just as a shadowy outline dropped down in front of him. He recognized the powerful aura, before the figure stepped into the dim glow from the neon sign, his long hair swaying gently behind him.

"Nice night, is it not?" Duo smiled, but it was a frigid smile, not the brilliant one his face would normally wear. He was again in the elegantly cut violet colored silk shirt and tight fitting black pants that Heero remembered him wearing at Midnight Masquerade. "Stormy weather will definitely liven things up a bit."

"Where's Dorothy?" Catherine demanded.

"Not here! I am by myself at the moment," he gave an overly dramatic flourish of his arm and went into a deep bow. Instead of the jester quality of his usual antics, the movement was clearly meant to be intimidating. And it was. It left no room for them to doubt whether he could handle them all on his own without his puppeteer.

"...Duo?"

Heero had forgotten about Wufei in his silence and looked back to find the Chinese man stark white again, though out of disbelief and horror at the spectacle before them. He moved forward as if drawn by an invisible rope and Duo's icy mask appeared to flicker fleetingly.

"Oh, Wufei, my poor, poor Wufei," he whispered chillingly, suddenly right in front of his lover and cradling his golden face with his waxen hands in morbid tenderness. "You have saved me the inconvenience of tracking you two down and giving you what you deserve."

Another unseen move of his hand and Wufei was airborn. Luckily, Heero anticipated it and managed to catch the other Asian before he collided with the wall of the bar.

"You are all traitors! And traitors cannot be allowed to walk among us," Duo declared, an inhuman anger radiating for him. "It is time to cleanse the filth away, for good."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Wufei shouted, the pain he felt ringing out clearly. "Dorothy is wrong! Come back to where you belong, we can make things better again!"

"Where I belong is has nothing to do with you," he replied cruelly, his amethyst eyes glittering sharply like diamonds and the frigid smile returning as he sauntered up to the Chinese man and Heero. "My mistress has commanded me to eliminate the weak and unworthy, and betrayers are on the top of my list."

Duo seized Wufei by the throat and lifted him bodily from the ground, struggling to breathe. He began to laugh, watching him fight for air, but the amusement faded as the tears flowing down the sides of Wufei's face streamed over his pale hands.

"Are you going to let me kill you without lifting a finger against me?"

"I- I could- never hurt you- wo ai-" Wufei rasped agonizingly before going limp in his iron grasp. Duo gave a feral growl and threw him over towards an appalled Catherine just as Heero's rock hard fist connected with his jaw.

"It's a good thing I don't have any qualms about injuring you," Heero spat furiously, putting his fear of the former slayer's incomparable strength aside as he shoved him violently. "You're not Duo any more. Duo would never treat Wufei like that, you're nothing but another disgusting monster controlled by my mother."

"So you finally realized it," Duo chuckled depreciatively, completely unfazed by the enraged vampire. "Farewell, Heero."

Catherine looked up from her ministrations in reviving Wufei at the same moment Duo attacked Heero. The storm broke, thunder clapping and rain pouring, as the creature that used to be their friend sank his fangs intohis neck and Heero's scream ripped through the darkness.

* * *

Well...did you guys see this coming? (hides)

Reviews are nice! Leave me one and I'll get the next update out as fast as I can!


	14. Chapter 14

New chapter! Kinda short, but there's loads of fun stuff. My next update may be a bit of a wait, with Thanksgiving right around the corner and because finals at my university are right after Thanksgiving break, so all my free time will be spent hitting the books instead of the keyboard.

Hopefully, it won't be too long!

Enjoy!

* * *

Noin was furious. Absolutely, positively, utterly furious. Not even Une was trying to calm her down, because she was just as angry.

Dorothy sat, as usual, in the center of attention with her 'chosen' crowd, Duo having successfully chased off or killed any of the 'unworthy' earlier that night.

Which was why Noin and Une were pissed.

"That fucking bitch," the purpled-haired woman muttered darkly, clenching a shot glass so hard it broken in her hand as she looked over at the person of her animosity. "She promised she would leave the club alone, that was one of the only things I asked of her. Nothing serious, just leave our place of business alone. And what's the first thing she fucking does? Starts shit in OUR fucking club!"

"Yes, well a mouth like that certainly won't get us anywhere, now will it?" Une replied dryly, though her disposition was equally tense. "I don't want to say it again, but..."

"I told you so, yeah, yeah, I know," Noin glared at the bloody shards. "Don't remind me. Where in the hell is Heero when we need him?"

"I think Catherine went to get him."

"She's been gone a long time," she grumbled, cleaning up her mess.

Une chuckled. "She is human, you know. Has to do it the old fashioned way. Then of course it's going to take ages to coax Heero into coming here, especially with the way his mother's acting and how much he -adores- spending time with her."

"I don't blame the guy for avoiding us and Masquerade," Noin sighed, tossing her dirty towel aside and leaning over onto her lover's shoulder. "I screwed up big time, Middie. I hope we can get rid of Dorothy before she does too much damage."

"If we get lucky, maybe the slayers will off her," Une remarked under her breath, wrapping her arms around her in a tight embrace. "Not that I'd seriously wish that blasphemous desire on any of our kind, but she's definitely an exception."

"No kidding," she snorted. "Just don't let anyone else hear you say that."

"Yes, well you certainly don't have anything to worry about there, I like living too much," Une replied amusedly, kissing her lover's forehead.

"Look at her just sitting there, preening over herself. It makes me sick-"

Whatever Noin was going to say was interrupted by the double doors exploding open with a splintering crash and the now familiar violet blur flew in.

Duo did not seem very happy as he stalked over to where Dorothy and her crowd were. Everyone parted like the Red Sea as he approached, going straight up to the blonde woman reclining in the red plush couch. Curiosity extremely piqued, Noin and Une crept their way through the throng to eavesdrop in on the situation.

"Darling! You're back early! Have you taken care of our little...problem?"

Une glanced over at Noin and mouthed 'Problem?', but her purple-haired partner only shrugged in befuddlement.

Duo's disturbingly smooth voice filtered into their ears. "The problem was handled. However, there is a small hitch."

"A -small- hitch?" The air of the room dropped twenty degrees.

"Wufei is dead. There was a complication when it came to Heero, though I believe he is as good as dead."

The two women stared at each other, eyes wide as saucers in horror. "Where is Catherine!" Noin whispered harshly, dragging Une through the swarm of people towards the now busted exit.

"I can call her, but we need to get out of here now," her face was a pale green. "How could he do that? I don't understand. Wufei was his lover, how-?"

"You've seen how Dorothy treats him, he's twice bitten Middie, we don't know what she could do to him or what he can do," Noin said, highly distressed. "I've never particularly liked Heero, but shit, he didn't deserve getting killed by that thing."

"Maybe he's not dead, Duo said there was a complication- maybe..."

"I'd put my money that he's a pile of ash somewhere now, as much as I hate to believe it," she gripped Une's hand tightly. "Call Catherine, see what we can find out."

Several tries proved fruitless. "She's not answering. I hope Catherine wasn't the complication, because you know Dorothy won't hesitate to eliminate any obstacles in her path."

"Oh do I know, and I hope she's all right too."

* * *

"It's a good thing we were able to stop the bleeding."

"Yeah, well, you guys were lucky we decided to follow you instead of sitting around here trying to come up with a plan."

"Look. He's waking up..."

He felt so very heavy, as if his limbs were full of lead. The buzz of voices around him slowly dragged him back to consciousness, pain beginning to stab through his body like a million needles. When he tried to open his eyes, a violent wave of nausea crashed over him like a brick wall and had him rolling over to empty the contents of his stomach into a bloody bucket on the floor.

"Oh, shit! Irea, go get somebody else in here, quick!" He dimly recognized the agitated female voice as she grasped his shaking form. "Hey, it's gonna be all right, just breathe and try to relax...I don't even know what the hell I'm talking about, but it works for everyone else, so hopefully it will for you."

"What's wrong Catherine?" The new voice he knew instantly, despite the fact that the owner sounded like he was having difficulty speaking. "Is Heero all right?"

"I don't know! We've never dealt with anything like this before!" Catherine replied bewilderedly.

"Heero?" Wufei's hands replaced the others, his ragged voice gentle. "Listen to me, I need you to talk to me, I need to know what you're feeling right now."

Heero could only manage a guttural moan as he rolled back over, the sickness subsiding enough for him to open his eyes and glance up the Chinese man. His throat had almost perfectly outlined, black and blue handprints wrapped around it, his expression the most tormented one to ever grace his features. They were in his and Duo's room again.

"At least I can safely say that you've looked better," Wufei smiled slightly at the positive response. "Do you remember what happened?"

He nodded a little then mumbled thickly, "Why didn't I die?"

Any other vampire that had been attacked by Duo thus far has turned to dust, so why didn't he?

Wufei shifted uncomfortably. "Quatre, Trowa, and Irea showed up just as D- that thing bit you, going by Catherine's word since I was incapacitated then, and ran him off before too much damage was done."

"Then what's wrong with me?"

"That's a good question," he frowned, unconsciously touching his bruised neck. "All the vampires he's killed were fledglings, you're the first pureblooded vampire. Or you -were-."

"-Were-?" Heero was becoming more alert now, fighting to ignore his aching body's protests. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well..."

"Wufei, what's happening to me?"

The Chinese man was refusing to meet his gaze. "You're losing your immortality," he pointed over at the bucket beside the bed. "Your body is rejecting any of the blood in your system that you have consumed within the past couple of days. Quatre said he sensed your vampirism vanishing since the attack."

"So basically..." Heero's foggy mind was struggling to comprehend what Wufei was telling him, why he felt so...vulnerable.

"You're human, Heero, you're one of us now."

* * *

Quatre lay exhausted, his head on Trowa's chest and wrapped up in his arms, as they rested in their room down the hall. He didn't even have the strength to block out the tendrils of confusion and suffering that came to him from Wufei and Heero, their conversation evident.

The past few hours had been some of the most difficult they had ever been through, and his empathy could only take so much before it shut down on him.

When Catherine and the other two had left, it hadn't been so much of a decision as an instinctive response when he, Trowa, and Irea went after them. He hadn't expected to feel and see what he had.

The way the new Duo treated Wufei, it was almost heartbreaking. Never had he sensed such misery and pain as he had from Wufei, and knowing that it was Duo who was inflicting the agony only made it worse. He had almost let himself get killed because of his emotions, Wufei was just lucky Catherine had been there.

Heero was a different case entirely. How could a pureblooded vampire be turned human? Apparently there was something involved in Duo's abnormality in itself, nothing of this nature had been documented in their archives before. Not only was he extremely powerful physically, yet so subservient mentally, but he also sustained himself off of other vampires. So far, there had been no evidence that he had killed humans, so it seemed that his system could only tolerate the immortal blood.

Quatre was interrupted out of his brooding as Trowa suddenly rolled him over flat on his back and straddled him in between his muscular legs. "Stop thinking so much, angel," he smiled at the empath's shocked expression, dropping a soft kiss on his forehead. "You need to relax and not think so much, you'll be helping no one if you stress yourself out like this."

"I know, but-"

Trowa cut him off before he could finish with a swift kiss on the lips. "Stop. I won't have any more of it, right?"

"All right, all right, I'll stop. For now. I won't make any promises that it'll last very long though," Quatre sighed.

"Then I'll just have to properly distract you," his unibanged lover kissed him again, slowly beginning to unbutton his shirt.

* * *

WEEEEE! (grumble) I wish I wouldn't get into trouble here for graphic scenes. Once I get an account at a more adult friendly site, I'll be much happier.

Anyway, hopefully next update won't take three weeks, but I don't make promises around the holiday and exam times...(sigh)


	15. Chapter 15

(holds up sign: 'WARNING! Slash ahead! So don't say I didn't warn you!')

I am so terribly sorry for the long delay. Thanksgiving, final exams, being extremely sick, and now Christmas bullshit as kept me quite tied up. I've given up all efforts to make my work suitable for f f . net,thus the warning, and yes that means this chapter includes a very graphic bit of sex.

Also, for the entire 3x4 scene from the end of the last chapter, it's posted on my archive. Since deciding I was fed up with censoring my work on here, I created a Yahoo!Group called DVG's Archive. All my fanfiction, uncensored, and fanart is on there. So anybody with a Yahoo! Account who wants to join would make me very happy!

H t t p / g r o u p s . y a h o o . c o m / g r o u p / d v g s a r c h i v e

Without the spaces of course.

So, on with the fic.

Enjoy!

* * *

So far, the first few hours of 'humanity' weren't treating Heero very nicely. 

His body was still rejecting many things out of his system, the burning pain exquisite to him after so many years of feeling nothing. But pain was pain, and DAMN did it hurt like hell.

Wufei had left him to try to wrap his mind around the concept of humanity wile he went out to update Catherine and Irea and to check on his partners.

Honestly, ever since the fateful encounter with Duo, Quatre, and Trowa, and the whole fiasco with Wufei...Heero had found that his newfound 'conscience' had secretly been hoping something like this would happen.

As much as he would have liked to deny such blasphemous thoughts (though it wouldn't exactly be considered blasphemous now, would it?), he had grown quite attached to his Chinese friend and his braided lover. The thought that he wanted to be part of their lives without secrecy and how he wanted what they had, that deep emotional connection that he had seen them overcome many difficult obstacles with...

It all seemed too good to be true. It really did. He was a pureblooded vampire, he had killed many, ruthlessly, in the years he had walked during the nighttime. Hell, he had been the one who plotted Wufei's demise initially, before killing Zechs and Treize himself. He didn't deserve any of this.

Heero snapped back to reality as warm hands touched his clammy face. "Gods, Heero, you feel like ice!" Wufei hissed, his golden features dulled with concern.

"Considering half my blood content is in that bucket next to you, it doesn't surprise me," the Japanese man muttered darkly, unable to suppress the shivers the racked his body.

"Well, technically, it's not -your- blood any more, we're going to have to match your original blood type eventually to put down in our medical records. Your blood count isn't below the limit to need a transfusion done, it's going to take a lot of sleep and -real- food to bring you up to snuff, as Duo likes to call it," Wufei smiled faintly, then turned his gaze around the room. "Your body temperature on the other hand, is having difficulty reaching normal levels...I couldn't find any more blankets in the apartment."

Heero's tired eyes widened, as Wufei resolutely kicked his shoes off and climbed into his side of bed, pulling his shaking form up flush up against his heat-radiating body.

It was common knowledge when it came to hypothermic suffers that raw human body heat would warm them up faster than any electric blankets, or and medical technique. Irea had suggested it to make Heero's recovery faster, but now that he was here...guilt squirmed in his insides. Laying here so close with Heero when he should be preparing to go out and save Duo from Dorothy's clutches.

"Why are you doing this, Wufei?" Heero asked, as if reading his mind.

"Because we need you...I need you," he replied softly into his unruly brown hair, his hoarse voice pained. "I'm not good at this alone thing anymore. Nobody knows me better than you and..."

"Don't think about him right now," Heero said, turning over so that they faced each other. "It's still daylight outside. There's time for that later. You won't be any help to anyone if you run yourself into the ground."

So close. Their noses were almost touching. Heero wasn't feeling so cold anymore.

Wufei couldn't pull his eyes away from the intense Prussian depths in front of him, the objections of his torn mind going unheard. This was wrong, this was -so- wrong...but right now, his body didn't care what his mind was thinking.

Their lips hovered hesitantly, mere centimeters apart, their warm breath ghosting across each other's faces. Everything wrong about that moment hung between their heavy gazes, but one blink and they were kissing desperately.

Months of dreaming and hoping and now getting what he wanted fueled Heero's flare of emotions, the foreign sensations intoxicating as his cold blood turned to lava in his veins. The ache of loneliness and fear that things might not ever be the same if they didn't succeed against Dorothy vanished in smoke from Wufei's burdened heart as he gave in to a temptation that should scream betrayal, but didn't.

Heero's fingers wove themselves in the Chinese man's loose raven locks as they pressed tightly together, Wufei's hands traveling up his sweat-soaked green tank top and feeling like they were scorching his skin with every touch.

Though not one to be submissive, Heero realized he knew nothing when it came to intimacy like this. He could seduce with the very best of them, but the people he targeted never lived beyond that point. So he gave no resistance when Wufei rolled him over onto his back, his muscular legs moving to straddle him around his hips.

Heero let out an audible gasp and sunk his nails into Wufei's back as his kisses moved down to his throat, stopping at a particularly sensitive spot as he bit down on the soft flesh. He pulled Wufei's shirt off carefully, sensible enough to remember the brace he still had on his left arm, and ran his hands down his muscular chest.

All reason went out the window though when Wufei bore his full weight down, their throbbing erections rubbing together with delicious friction that sent overwhelming shocks of pleasure coursing through Heero. He let out an audible gasp and a moan as Wufei purred nonsense into his ear and nibbled on his lobe.

Spurred on by Heero's response, Wufei made quick work of removing the two layers of jeans that separated their bare, scorching skin and moved his experienced mouth over hardened nipples. Heero thought that this had to be madness as their slick, sweat-glistening bodies seemed to meld into one, and the pure boundless sensitivity of his scorching flesh drove him over the edge.

One of Wufei's hands unconsciously reached over to the nightstand where a well used tube of lubricant sat, and it was only then that he finally hesitated. "Heero," he whispered roughly, his abused voice husky with lust that sent shivers down his would-be lover's spine. "This might hurt a bit. Are you sure you want to go all the way after everything tonight?"

Heero narrowed his hazy Prussian eyes dangerously at the mere suggestion of stopping and only responded by grabbing Wufei's face and pulling him back down into a fierce kiss. Without another word, Wufei shifted so that he could wrap Heero's legs around his waist into a more suitable position and the interrupted passion exploded in full force through them again in anticipation.

Wufei stroked Heero's hardness with one hand to distract him from the discomfort, while with the other he teased his puckered entrance with cool, wet fingers. Slowly, he penetrated Heero, stretching and preparing him for what was to come.

Heero inhaled sharply as Wufei entered him in patient gentleness until he was full in to the hilt, during which he continued to massage his twitching cock in the same slow motion. The intake of breath turned into moans from them both as the pace quickened, abandoning all forms of self-control and yielding to the tumultuous engulfment of emotions that could not be understood.

They came at the same time, Wufei inside Heero, and Heero all over Wufei's washboard abdomen. The air was heavy with sweat, body heat, and a satisfied silence as Wufei carefully withdrew and stretched out next to Heero. Without bothering to clean up, Heero wrapped his arms protectively around Wufei and they fell asleep.

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Pure, unadulterated, lemony smut. Yum. 

I promise I'll update sooner next time. Not so much bullshit in Real Life (which sucks right about now) to keep me away from my computer.

Reviews are lovely! It would feed my poor, abused ego greatly if you'd leave me one!


	16. Chapter 16

NEW CHAPTER! Yaay!

I apologize for the long delay, but here is the next chapter to MM, and hopefully, I'll get the next chapter out sooner than this one. It all depends on how nicely my university classes treat me. (sigh) Stupid homework. It only gets worse the higher up in the education system you get.

Enjoy!

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"Is she here?"

"No, it looks like they've left for now."

"Good," Noin let out a sigh of relief, joining Une at the bottom of the steps as they entered the club from their upstairs loft.

It was just after sunset, and a few of their workers were roaming about, straightening things up and preparing for another night. Dorothy and her little clique seemed to have abandoned the establishment for a while. They finally had some privacy.

"I wish I knew what was going on," Noin sighed heavily, laying comfortably with her head in Une's lap on one of the nearest couches. "How are we supposed to make any plans when we don't even know who's alive or not."

"Do you want me to try calling Catherine again?" Une offered, combing her long fingers through her purple hair.

"There's no need, I'm here."

The woman in question gave the battered doors of the club an amused glance before walking over to the couple. "Looks like things got wild in here last night," she remarked idly as Noin bolted upright.

"We tried reaching you!" Noin exclaimed. "Duo came raging in here, saying he killed Wufei, that Heero's as good as dead, and Middie and I are one step from finding those slayers and asking for help-"

The red-haired woman raised her hands to still her rant. "Are you serious about approaching them for help?" Catherine said solemnly.

Une eyed her guardedly then nodded, clearly deciding they could trust her with their secret ideas. "Yes, we want Dorothy gone, even if that means fraternizing with the enemy."

"Good," she smiled and sat down next to them, checking to make sure their employees were out of earshot. "Then let me explain some things. I am a slayer-"

"But, you work for Dorothy," Noin interrupted with confusion.

"-spy," Catherine continued, stilling her argument instantly. "It is my job during times of trouble, like this mess you started, to infiltrate myself with the enemy and keep a lookout for the slayers. You've actually met my brother, Trowa, the one that was tortured in the basement."

"You threw knives at him! What if you missed?"

"I didn't and I never will," she smiled easily. "But never the less, I did, and once again, that's part of the job description. Can't go blowing my cover because it's my own brother we're torturing. Anyway, I've been spying on Dorothy for a while now, ever since you first contacted her in Europe. We've been anticipating a situation like this, though not quite to this scale. We're in as much of a crisis as you are right now, because if Dorothy exposes the vampire world, we're exposed with it. Even though we keep vampires under control, and we also have some marginal supernatural abilities as well, normal human beings would still consider us murderers, so we would suffer as much as you. Imagine what they would do with someone like Quatre, with his fully developed empathic abilities."

"I never thought about it like that," Une mused aloud. "Though it does makes sense. But what about Heero and Wufei? If you're so close with Dorothy, then you know what happened last night with Duo."

"Yes I do, because I was there," Catherine replied with a frown. "I managed to keep Wufei alive, and my partners came before Duo killed Heero. Heero is with us, but Duo was correct in saying he is as good as dead."

"What do you mean by that?" Noin demanded with a hiss.

She raised her hands defensively again to ward off her anger. "Listen, I don't know exactly how to explain this, so I'll keep it simple. Heero has been turned human."

Noin and Une stared at her in silent shock, trying to comprehend what she said.

"But there's no way- he was Born-" Une struggled, mirroring her lover's bewildered expression.

"That's why I can't explain it," Catherine shrugged. "Just like we can't explain Duo either. Never in our written records is there anything on such powerful twice bitten vampires. Normally they don't last through the transformation, dying like a human, but if they're at least strong enough to survive it, they just go mad and kill themselves anyway. Duo survived, he hasn't killed himself yet, and he feeds off vampires instead of humans. Something in him made it possible for Heero to turn human, even though he was pureblooded."

"It all sounds so impossible..." Noin muttered under her breath. "But it's happening."

"If you are truly willing to commit to this," the red-haired woman pressed, standing back up. "Then you need to come with me now, while things are still quiet on the warfront. However, I must have your word that if I lead you to our hideout, that knowledge won't leave our confidences."

"Of course not, we want your help, don't we?" Une scoffed, then softened slightly. "I don't think we would put ourselves at this much risk just to betray your extension of aid in the disaster we created."

"Excellent, then follow me," Catherine smiled, beckoning as she walked towards the exit. She waited for a moment outside as they spoke briefly with one of the employees then lead the couple through the maze of alleyways. The Romafeller Palace complex loomed over them as Catherine ushered them through an emergency exit Irea had disabled.

"You guys own a place here, but you sneak in through the back door like thieves?" Noin remarked wryly, earning an equally dry look from Catherine.

"Yes, well it would seem pretty suspicious if we came in through the front lobby every day right before dawn covered in blood and carrying an arsenal of weapons," she replied caustically.

"True."

Une rolled her eyes behind her lover's back.

Catherine didn't falter when they reached the apartment, she threw open the doors and brought them in behind her.

"Catherine- oh," Trowa stopped midsentence, putting down the gun he had been loading and treating Noin and Une with a neutral expression. "That was quick."

The vampires felt a moment of extreme unease, most especially Noin, as they stood in front of someone they had tormented not too long ago. And he was armed. In his own territory.

"Has our two favorite people come out yet?" Catherine asked, ignoring the strained atmosphere as they sat down in the living room with Trowa.

"Not yet, Quatre says it's best we leave them be for now," he smiled indulgently.

"Leave who be?" Wufei greeted, less than enthusiastically and with really bad bed hair, stifling a yawn as he slunk into the kitchen. He reemerged with two steaming mugs of tea, then noticed their new guests. "What in the gods' names are -they- doing here!" Wufei was definitely awake now.

"We want to get rid of Dorothy as much as you do," Noin said earnestly.

Wufei replied with something scathing in Mandarin before stalking out of the room and Trowa let out a low whistle. "I haven't heard him use that phrase since that one night a female bartender tried giving him fashion advice, thinking he was a badly dressed woman."

"Really? That's impressive," Quatre chuckled as he entered the room, dropping lightly on the couch next to Trowa. "I was wondering what stirred up so much anger..."

"I don't blame the guy," Noin shrugged carelessly. "I fucked up."

"Eloquent way to word the situation," the empath replied baldly, raising an eyebrow and sharing a knowing glance with his lover and Catherine. "So, you're here to help us?"

"We're here to –get- help -from- you," Une rephrased delicately, well aware of the vulnerability they were opening themselves to.

"And I think you're full of shit," Wufei said crassly, returning with a much healthier looking Heero right behind him. "And you know what else I think of you-"

"Hush, Wufei. Hear them out."

The Chinese man stopped short, his onyx eyes smoldering with an angry fire as he faced Heero, but found his gaze matched squarely with the other's calm Prussian depths. He wanted to retort, to blow all the rage and frustration at the ones responsible for the mess they were in...though it seemed Heero knew something he didn't, and trusted them.

'Well, damn.'

The air in the room crackled with tension until Wufei finally conceded with silence, sitting in the nearest empty armchair and resigning himself to glowering darkly at the vampires.

"We don't have much time," Une continued reluctantly, feeling even more apprehensive then before. "Dorothy and her little entourage weren't at the club when we left, but who knows when she'll come back, or what she's planning on doing."

"Oh she'll come back," Heero replied flatly. "She made that her place of preference, since she betrayed her promise to you and cleared Midnight Masquerade out of any impure vampires. Dorothy may be out getting in a few kicks, but be sure she'll return before too long."

That didn't seem to please Noin and Une at all.

"Maybe..." Quatre murmured, his soft face thoughtful. "Maybe, if we can get there before she returns, we can plan some sort of aggressive sneak attack. Catch her of her guard. So far she's been one step ahead of us, beating us back easily, but she has yet to have the roles reversed."

"That's suicide!" Une gasped.

"We've done worse," Trowa shrugged indifferently. "As long as everything is thoroughly planned, extra variables considered, back up waiting for our call..."

"...and an extremely large amount of that fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants luck that we seem to be LACKING in lately," Wufei rumbled moodily, his glare not lessening in the slightest. "Then -hopefully- things will work out."

"You're not helping any."

He swiveled his scowl to Heero. "I'm being realistic here! YOU may understand what your mother's capable of, and everyone else here has a pretty general idea- but we're also facing DUO and WE BOTH know what the fuck he's capable of," he exploded, his half-healed voice quickly going hoarse and only amplifying the slipping restraint he had over his turbulent emotions. His angry visage was wilting faster than a flower out of water.

"We either do this, or we continue to be beaten down and let her win," Quatre said gently, though the resolve underneath was firm as he rubbed his chest at the pain he felt.

"Not much of a choice then, is there?" he replied, getting back on his feet and leaving the room. Heero watched him with a small frown clouding his features before following wordlessly.

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Mmmmm...angsty-ness. Can't resist.

Reviews are very nice ways of encouragement.


	17. Chapter 17

(grrrrr) I had this chapter ready to post three days ago, but stupid f f . n e t wouldn't let me upload it.

Sorry about the long delay between updates, I've been major-super busy with school and being Stage Manager in my university theatre, so I haven't had much time to write. I hope you enjoy this!

And I promise I'll try to make sure it isn't a month before I update again!

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Chapter 17

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Une was nervous. And had a very, VERY good reason to be.

She stood behind the bar, fidgeting compulsively with glasses and bottles as she watched Noin pace restlessly back and forth around the club like a caged tiger. The slayers, Heero, and Wufei were...somewhere. They had all agreed that whatever they were planning was left unsaid to herself and her lover, Dorothy had become so fanatical as of late that they didn't put it past her to try to feel their minds, searching for the unease often associated with betrayal.

It was bad enough having the knowledge that they had been in the slayers' presence, but that could be easily explained in an acceptable manner. It was a whole other thing knowing that they were part of the ambush with said arch-enemies waiting to attack a sovereign, of all vampires to plot against.

Part of Une wished she would stay away, delay the inevitable moment until they were more prepared...but as Heero had predicted, Dorothy was not gone for long, and before they knew it, she had materialized with her entourage amidst the small crowd of people in Midnight Masquerade.

"Ugh, Americans have been too desensitized by movies and television," Dorothy remarked with a sneer, leaning up against the bar counter. "Can you believe one of the poor idiots I played with tonight had the gall to -laugh- at me when I bared my fangs! He told me Halloween wasn't for another few months and to go back to whatever moldy castle I flew out of."

"Well, you obviously weren't too bothered, or else you would still be out here torturing him," Une replied mechanically.

"True, he -was- a stupid man after all."

She muttered something noncommittally and turned her gaze away from the blonde woman, pretending to be interested in the band Noin had hired and was helping set up on the stage. Une felt as if she was stuck in one of those old Western movies, sitting there behind the bar like in an old saloon, making small talk to customers during the calm right before the bad guy or the hero burst through the doors with a cloud of dust, guns barreling.

But no. Remembering the past few times they had been confronted by the slayers...their style wasn't to run head on with guns at the ready, they tended to infiltrate first, then make their moves.

Noin came over to them, stepping over the rope that blocked off entrance to the bar counter and standing beside her lover. "So where's your...friend, Dorothy?" Her lip curled up slightly, her disdain barely contained.

"Oh, he's around. I told him to have fun, he'll know whenever I need him," she smiled carelessly, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

Noin opened her mouth to reply then stopped, staring fixedly at the doors in complete incredulity. Une looked to see what it was and her stomach clenched queasily.

So it started now. And Noin was a very good actress.

Dorothy, irritated, turned to figure out what was going on and froze when she saw Heero standing right in front of her, arms folded across his chest.

"What's wrong? Why are you so shocked to see me, -mother-?" he asked dryly, raising an eyebrow.

"I- Well, I just you weren't going to be here, normally you're here as soon as the sun sets, otherwise, you don't come at all," Dorothy lied smoothly, her face instantly closing up.

Heero's eyebrow rose further. "So it has nothing to do with the fact that you sent your lapdog you try to kill me last night?"

"Oh now, Heero..." Her charm flashed on brightly, her voice laden with unctuous undertones. "Why must you blow everything out of proportion? I was just trying to..."

"Trying to kill me. Yes, I noticed," he snapped, his amusement quickly melting into a dangerous anger.

"You deserved it!" Dorothy flared up, all former pretenses gone. "YOU ARE A BETRAYER!"

Everything in the club went deathly silent and one by one, the people began to disappear, not wanting to be around when whatever was about to happen exploded into the open. Noin and Une unconsciously stepped back so far that their backs were pressed up against the wall.

"You- I thought we had brought you up better than this! You- a pureblood and utter perfection of immortality!" Dorothy raged on. "I saw everything you did, I saw it all in Duo's mind when I turned him-" She seemed so irate that she was having difficulty spitting the words out. "You are worse of a betrayer than that filthy fledging, Wufei!"

Une glanced uneasily to her lover, but Noin was just as confused as she was. How could Heero have done anything worse than what Wufei, or themselves for that matter, had? Unless...No, it couldn't be possible.

The room was almost entirely empty now, the only exception being a few shadowy forms scattered through out the club, and Une had a pretty good idea who they were. Heero and Dorothy were at a rigid standoff, glaring each other down with ire-laden gazes, until everyone's favorite person came waltzing out from behind the stage.

"You called?" Duo said smoothly, stopping a few feet away from them. His intense presence seemed to suck every last ounce of air from the room, drawing all eyes towards him.

As fast as a switch flick, Dorothy's facade was all smiles. "Ah yes, Duo...tell me something," she gestured to Heero. "I thought you took care of him last night. So why is he standing here before, unharmed?"

"I told you I was interrupted," he replied with the same cool tone as before, stepping towards the Japanese man and walking a circle around him. There was a flicker of deep pain in his unearthly purple eyes when he faced the women again and he reached out with a pale hand to touch Heero's lips. "Wufei..."

Heero jerked away from Duo's cold fingers and the moment was lost. Duo snarled and threw his outstretched arm back, knocking Heero into the nearest table with a nasty crash.

"Come out of your hiding places- I know you're in here!" he growled dangerously, rounding to the shadowy forms. Revealed, the slayer and empath presences filled the void that Quatre had created to block them. Une and Noin let out small sighs of relief as the blonde, Trowa, Catherine, Irea, and a few other sisters came into the light. Quatre and Trowa immediately went to Heero's side, helping him to his feet.

"Where is Wufei?" Duo demanded, still gazing at Heero with something akin to vehement jealousy.

Catherine crossed her arms. "Do you really think he'd come after the number you did on him? Don't forget, you considered him dead by your own hand," she pointed out bluntly.

The violet-eyed vampire seemed at a loss for words, so Dorothy decided to butt back into the conversation. "I still can't believe I trusted you!" she scowled at the red-haired woman, advancing menacingly to her. "And all this time you were one of THEM!"

"Take one more step and I'll pump your heart full of metal," Irea threatened, training her gun at the blonde.

Dorothy laughed, her voice washing over them like an icy waterfall. "Do you really think that will kill me?"

"No, but it'll sure as hell slow you down long enough for us to kill you properly."

"I would like to see you try," she smirked, watching Duo as he began prowling around the small group like a cat ready to pounce. His focus transfixed on Heero, his thoughts clearly read on his pallid features as he kept sensing Wufei's impression all over him and not wanting to believe why.

Naturally, Heero was utterly unnerved. His body ached from his collision with the table, simple pains like this were a new adjustment he was going to have to get used to, especially if he was staying around with Wufei and the other slayers. He really didn't like the way Duo's intimidating eyes bore through him and was horribly aware of the fact that the vampire could feel the influence of Wufei on him. It was the same sense he himself had used when he realized Wufei had betrayed him for the slayers so long ago and had Duo's aura all over him.

He silently wished things could go back to the way they were before. It would make life so much simpler.

Dorothy dismissed Catherine and Irea with an airy wave of her hand and resumed her smirk towards Heero. "I suppose this all works out in the end anyway," she purred, her perfect lips curled up in a sneer. "You obviously were not worthy of your noble birth, so instead of tarnishing my reputation by killing my own son despite his inexcusable crime, no one will bat an eyelash at the death of mere mortal."

"What in the hell are you going on about?" Noin demanded, finally getting the courage to speak up in her irritation. "I may not like Heero, but human or not, I don't want him killed in our club. You've already broken your promise and killed enough of our kind in here."

"Oh, you may want to wait before you try to enforce that idea," Dorothy's Cheshire Cat smile broadened as she beckoned Duo to her side. "Darling, why don't you tell them what –really- happened the night Treize and Milliardo died."

Quatre and Trowa covertly shared troubled glances between themselves and their respective sisters behind Heero's back. If Duo told the truth, the shaky alliance with Noin and Une will be annihilated, and this half-cocked plan of theirs will quickly be blown to hell and back.

This definitely didn't look good.

"What really happened the night Treize and Milliardo died..." Duo repeated with relish, unmistakably getting amusement from watching everyone squirm. "Well, you see, it all really happened like this-"

"I killed them, plain and simple. I thought everyone knew that already."

In a blur of purple silk and chestnut hair, Duo's attention, along with everyone else's, was immediately turned towards the door to Noin and Une's upstairs loft. It stood open, the light from the narrow corridor sharply silhouetting a lean, muscular body leaned up against the frame.

"Do you know how hard it is to climb up the drainpipe and get quietly through that boarded up window to your apartment?" Wufei remarked dryly to the two shocked women as he stepped in between them and walked around the counter, clicking back the safety on his gun.

The atmosphere suddenly exploded with a volatile surge of energy and Quatre cried out painfully, his hands gripped tightly over his heart. Before anyone could even comprehend what was going on, Dorothy let out a shriek as she was slammed down brutally to the floor while Duo and Wufei seemed to vanish into thin air.

They reappeared across the room, far away from everyone else, as Duo's inhuman howl vocalized the anguish that had the empath falling faint to the floor.

"How could you betray me like this!"

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Mmmm... Jealous Duo. Things are about to get more interesting. :)

Reviews are nice! It makes this poor, ego-starved authoress feel like SOMEBODY'S reading her nonsense.


	18. Chapter 18

Update:) I couldn't help myself, I had to update this one before my HP fic, after the horrible cliffhanger I left it at in the last chapter.

Enjoy!

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"How could you betray me like this!"

Wufei stared at Duo, any fear threatening to swallow him whole instantly replaced by utter incredulity.

"Betray you! YOU!" A slightly hysterical edge tinted his laughter. "That's rich! After what you've done to me!"

"You deserve what you get for being a traitor. I'm only sorry your friend managed to save you from, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," Duo replied coldly, his face ominously expressionless.

Wufei looked like he had been slapped, then out of nowhere, a self-righteous anger he hadn't felt in a long time reared its ugly head from the depths of his emotional turmoil. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he spat, throwing all his weight and strength as he shoved the ice sculpture before him. Duo, caught off guard, stumbled back in shock. "Are you really just going to sit here and let that BITCH-" Wufei threw an acidic glare over towards Dorothy. "- control you like this? Whatever I did to betray -you-, you have no right to be angry with me because you're obviously not my Duo. YOU are a puppet. YOU are nothing but a plaything begging to be controlled by everyone else but yourself. You have NO REASON to do any of the bullshit Dorothy makes you do- Do you even know what you yourself believe in?"

The deep pain that had flickered so briefly before when he had gotten close to Heero earlier began to surface, twisting Duo's blank mask with confliction.

"Shut up."

"Shut up. Witty comeback, really," Wufei sniped, on a roll now that he was beginning to get things off his chest. He shoved Duo again, sending him backwards into one of the plush couches. "What's wrong? Am I touching a -nerve- maybe? Duo, MY DUO, would not let anyone walk all over him like this. He despises it. He won't let anyone jerk him around on such a short leash as Dorothy has you on. As far as I'm concerned, Duo doesn't exist anymore. In his place is this -weak-, -pathetic- toy blindly following that- that MONSTER'S command-"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Duo roared, gripping his head, his fingers knotted into his long hair to the roots, as if it were about to rip wide open.

"This is suicide," Quatre gasped, stepping towards them, but Trowa held him in place with a warm touch on his arm. Heero stood, unable to move at all, as they all watched the confrontation.

He was finally breaking through Dorothy's influences. He was finally getting a real response out of the frozen replacement of his lover. And it broke his heart to know what he had to do next to really batter at his mental bondage.

Wufei leaned close, lips almost touching Duo's ear as he whispered with a voice thick with anguish, "-My- Duo is gone. Now I have Heero, so that I won't be left alone."

Duo staggered to his feet, still clutching at his head, and moved unsteadily away from the Chinese man as a low keen of distress bubbled in his throat. Dorothy glided towards him, her face lit up lividly in rage.

"Don't listen to him, darling, he's lying," she hissed, grasping one of his arms with a claw-like hand and wretched it away from his head. "Lies, I tell you. He is a traitor, he is only trying to get under your skin and distract you from your purpose." Her icy blue eyes shot daggers around the room at everyone.

"Oh yes, I'M the one who's lying," Wufei replied waspishly. "Look at this, even now she is trying to control you."

"Hold your tongue," Dorothy ordered harshly.

"Why?" he asked defiantly. "Because I speak the TRUTH? You are disgusting, can't you do anything for yourself? Or must you always feel the need for dominance over others to get your kicks? What YOU do is unjustifiable, not anything I've ever done to your kind. You are not a god who reigns over the fates of others."

"Says you," she smiled coldly, then with an irritated huff, she threw Duo away from her side. "Get up! Kill them already!"

He crumpled to his knees, his body trembling visibly as his subconscious battled between conflicting wills. "No!"

"Dorothy, please, stop! This is getting us no where!" Noin pleaded, looking upset.

"Stop?" the blonde turned to the bar, her voice low with deadly malice. "I will not stop until the betrayers are dead. Wufei betrayed you- Heero betrayed you- should they not die?"

"This is stupid! Heero didn't do anything!" Noin argued, glancing over at the Japanese man among the slayers, but he refused to meet her gaze.

"Didn't do anything?" Dorothy laughed. "HE was the one who killed Treize and Milliardo! Not Wufei and the slayers!"

A heavy, oppressive silence swallowed the room in trepidation. Noin and Une stared from Dorothy's triumphant smirk with Duo fallen at her feet to Heero, whose expression was frozen amid the uneasy ones of the slayers. Then to Wufei's grim frown that confirmed all.

"It can't be..."

"No, it's true," Heero spoke at last, looking back to Wufei and Duo. "I killed them. I wanted to save Wufei and Duo, it was the least I could do for Wufei after everything he had been through. He had never wanted to be one of our kind, Zechs used him as practice for Treize, then cast him away like garbage on my doorstep. He broke the ancient laws first. Never do you abandon a newly-turned vampire, no matter what the circumstances."

Noin mouthed something soundlessly, then Une had to rush forward as she fell faint to the ground.

"Oh dear, I don't think she handled that very well," Dorothy chuckled depreciatively, raising an eyebrow. "Do it now, Duo, now that everyone has heard it out of Heero's own mouth. Kill him. And Wufei. Get rid of the traitors!"

Duo shook his head viciously, tearing at his disheveled hair. "NO! No, no, no, I won't-" A guttural sob garbled his speech.

"Come over to me, Duo," Wufei coaxed gently, crouching down level with his violet-eyed lover. "Come back to us. Let me and Heero take care of you."

He held out his hand as Duo looked up through his tangled bangs. Slowly, and with no small amount of effort, Duo released his grip and went for Wufei's outstretched hand. A tornado could have ravaged the club and no one would have been budged or made a noise.

"Don't," Dorothy's imperious voice rang through the silence and Duo froze, cut to the quick in the moment of complete vulnerability. "Stop sniveling down there and get up. I gave you orders and now you must -obey- them."

He moved as if invisible strings were yanking him every which way, half still wanting to reach forward to Wufei, the other half complying to Dorothy's command and rising up. The sight was rather grotesque to say the least, like a caged animal worked up in a claustrophobic frenzy.

Heero cast a look over the horrified expressions of the others before finally breaking away and swiftly approaching the deadlock. He gave Dorothy a wide berth, his fist clenched tightly around the handle of the gun at his side, before kneeling next to Wufei.

The sight of him and Wufei so close seemed to snap something behind all the confusion and Duo flew to his feet, an intense pulse of power knocking them both backward as he whirled around to Dorothy.

"I knew you would come to your senses," she purred as he came closer and sent Heero and Wufei a contemptuous sneer. "See? Nothing you can do will-"

Whatever she was going to say was abruptly cut off by a ghastly scream as Duo suddenly launched himself at her, tackling her to the floor. The sickening sound of flesh ripping and blood gurgling followed with another violent burst of energy as she turned to dust underneath his body.

Duo collapsed in a boneless heap and remained motionless.

The spell over the room broke and Quatre, Trowa, and the sisters rushed over to the other side of the club just as Heero and Wufei reached Duo's prone form.

"Duo?" Wufei said tentatively, grasping his cold shoulder and rolling him onto his back. "Wo ai, please- Please wake up." He brushed his fingers down Duo's dust covered, pale cheek.

"...'Fei," Duo's eyes fluttered open and he inhaled deeply. Then painful realization crashed on to him and before Wufei and Heero pulled him entirely on to his feet, he pulled away from them.

"I can't do this," he whispered hoarsely, backing further from them. "I- I-"

"Wait, Duo, let us just sit down and talk," Quatre said convincingly, trying to touch him, but he fled out of the club.

"We need to stay with him," Catherine remarked. "He shouldn't be left alone."

"No, he has a lot to process," Heero sighed, not willing to look up and meet Wufei's hurt expression.

"All we can do is go home and wait," Trowa replied, embracing his blonde lover comfortingly. "He'll come back to us."

"I hope so."

"You're not going anywhere!" Noin snapped, coming from behind the bar with Une at her side. "You have a LOT of explaining to do to us!"

"What is there to explain?" Heero crossed his arms over his chest. "Yes, I killed Treize and Zechs. But they deserved it. Now, I'm with them and we're leaving."

"Well, that sounds good to me," Une shrugged.

"Middie!"

"What? It's not like we need Heero to run this place anyway, we've practically ran it for him ever since he took over," she answered. "And really, Treize and Milliardo did deserve what they got. This is our chance for a fresh start, Lu, so let's take it."

Noin's brow furrowed thoughtfully, then after a moment she smiled. "All right," she glanced over at the others. "You better leave before I change my mind."

Catherine was just about to make a sarcastic retort, but Irea grabbed her by the arm and steered her out of Midnight Masquerade behind the men. It was going to be a very long, painful walk back to the apartment.

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	19. Chapter 19

Hey guys! I am so sorry it's taken so long to update. The computer I use to write all my stories on died on me, so I had to start over from scratch and hand write everything so I could get onto this computer and type it all back up. (sigh)

The final chapter to Midnight Masquerade will be posted sometime next week.

Enjoy!

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"Will you please sit down before you wear a giant hole in the carpet?"

Wufei paused in his endless cycle around the living room. "I can't just sit down."

Heero sighed as he watched him continue his maddening pace. "Listen, you're not going to make things any easier by exhausting yourself and worrying like this," he said, standing up and stopping Wufei in his tracks by placing his hands on his shoulders. "Quatre and Trowa are over at Irea's having a good time catching up with their family, distracting themselves from the inevitable. We can still go over there with them instead of waiting here like a ticking time bomb ready to explode."

"Duo will come here, not Irea's," Wufei replied for the billionth time that night, refusing to meet his Prussian gaze. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Wufei, do you really believe he's going to return so soon?" Heero asked gently, gaining his full attention. "After everything he's been through, I would be surprised if he came back in a week from now."

The barely suppressed turmoil flickered across Wufei's taut expression and he jerked away. "I don't want to hear that right now."

"I know you don't, but Wufei-"

"No."

Heero stepped closer, in his mind changing conversation tactics. "You are going to sit here and stew, working yourself up. If you don't step away from the situation and take a moment to breathe, you won't be able to approach Duo the way you want to if you're set to blow up at the littlest thing or on the verge of collapse."

Wufei narrowed his eyes irritably. "Thank you for reminding me how much you are a real pain in the ass when you want to be," he muttered.

"When dealing with someone as stubborn as yourself, I have to be," Heero smirked.

"Whatever. Let's go, I know a good place to relax at," Wufei said tartly, walking towards the door.

They walked out into the corridor, but instead of heading towards the elevator, Wufei turned to the stairwell and started going up.

"Where are you going? That goes up to the roof," Heero remarked, standing at the foot of the stairs.

"Exactly, come up here with me."

Heero shrugged it off and followed his Chinese partner up until he opened the door to the roof and a strip of murky red sunlight cut through the darkness. "I can't go out there."

Wufei looked back with a smile. "Yes, you can," he smiled wider and Heero by the arm, pulling him through the exit.

He instantly froze with his eyes clenched shut, waiting for the indescribable torture of burning to death that he knew came when a vampire went into the daylight. Nothing happened. No pain. Just a mild warmth across his exposed skin.

"And you thought –I- was melodramatic," Wufei snorted, removing his grip from his arm.

Heero opened his eyes experimentally and upon confirming the fact that he had indeed –not- burned to a pile of ashes, finally relaxed. "I don't understand."

Wufei chuckled. "Don't make me spell this out for you. Remember, human, not vampire. Duo brought me up here that night Treize and Zechs died," he said, his voice sadly whimsical. "We walked back from the house, and instead of going straight back into the apartment, we came up here. You never realize how much you really miss something until you get it back. Of course, you however, have never had the pleasure of experiencing a sunrise from a beautiful view. This is a very nice place to unwind after a stressful night."

Heero walked over to the edge of the roof with Wufei and examined the surroundings. The familiar star speckled blue black of night was melting away into a rainbow of purple, red, orange, and yellow that made the sky appear to be on fire. Looking down, the streets were easily triple the amount of people he had ever seen walking about at night as they all woke up and started their day. Everything was lit up with the reflections of the sun. "It's going to take a while to get used to this."

"Naturally."

He turned his back to Wufei, but he was staring intently down at the sidewalks below with a distracted, pained expression. Maybe he believed that the sheer force of his willpower would make Duo appear.

"Wufei-"

"How about we go get something to drink? We're obviously not going to sleep any time soon, and we're out of tea in the apartment," he cut Heero off abruptly, pointing across the street. "There's a café right there."

They headed back inside in a heavy silence that continued through the elevator ride to the lobby. The café was full of businessmen and women, young college students, and other different types of people as they entered. The girl working behind the register glanced up at the sound of the bell on the door handle jingling and broke into a grin.

"Hey Wufei! Looks like you pulled another all-nighter," she winked at them.

"Yes, it was a very long night," he replied with amusement. "You know how hectic it can get sometimes."

"I was wondering when you were going to show up, Duo never comes in here without you. He went and sat over at your usual table about ten minutes ago. Green tea with the ginseng, right?" she said, oblivious to the impact her casual comment about Duo being there had made. As she spoke, she took out two mugs, dropping a tea bag and pouring hot water into one. "But I guess you had to pick up this gorgeous guy on the way...what will you have, hot stuff?"

"Just black coffee," Heero answered, choosing the first thing his eyes landed on. He had never done this sort of thing before, he should have asked before they came in here.

The girl didn't seem to notice his confusion and handed them their mugs. "Here, take this back with you," she vanished behind the glass counter full of cookies, cakes, and breakfast food, and reemerged with a very chocolate filled slice of cake. "On the house. Duo seemed pretty down when he came in, so maybe his favorite dessert will cheer him up some."

"Thank you."

Wufei didn't even want for his change, he just took off away from the register like a rocket with Heero trying to keep up. They weeded their way around the café until Wufei halted near a semi-secluded booth in the back corner where their violet-eyed quarry sat.

Duo looked out of place still wearing the purple silk shirt and tight pants, both having seen better days judging by their rumpled state, and his tangled, partially braided hair hanging in a mess down his back. Even with his long shaggy bangs shrouding his face, the paleness of fatigue and anguish was obvious as he stared out the window, lost in some inner musing. The cold cup of coffee in his hands was untouched.

Heero stayed put as Wufei approached unnoticed and slid the plate with the chocolate cake onto the table. "Sonya thought you needed cheering up, so she sent this back with us," he said softly.

Duo nearly jumped out of his skin. "Sorry- 'Fei!" his voice was full of uncertainty and vulnerability.

"Please don't run on us this time, wo ai," Wufei implored, setting his mug down and sitting next to him.

"Us?" Duo looked up immediately and his eyes widened. "Heero...but how?"

"I asked myself the same question, believe me," Heero replied, sliding into the seat across from them.

"In the sunlight and drinking...black coffee? I –must- be hallucinating right now."

"No, but you are the reason I am here. In the sunlight and supposed to be drinking this stuff, thought I don't know what it is," he gave his mug a cautious sniff.

"How am I the reason?" The vulnerability returned. "All I did was nearly kill you."

"Exactly."

"Heero, don't make it worse than it has to be," Wufei frowned before turning back to Duo. "When you...or whatever you –were-...bit him, he turned human."

"Oh," he looked away from Wufei and Heero. "I'm still trying to piece everything together...it all hit me last night in such a rush. I didn't know what to do or to think. I'm sorry...I don't think I can say that enough, ever, if what I can remember is right." Duo reached over and tentatively touched the fading bruises still visible on Wufei's throat, then suddenly dissolved into tears.

"I am so, so sorry! I don't even know how you two can stand being here with me after everything I did-"

"It wasn't you! It was Dorothy and her mind games," Wufei insisted passionately, grasping Duo's shoulder. "None of this is your fault."

"In fact, I should be the one apologizing," Heero added. "She was my mother. Why do you think she sent you after both Wufei and myself that night? I was a disgrace to the family name AND the worst kind of betrayer."

"Yeah, but she would have never known if-"

"Now how in the hell were you supposed to defend yourself when you're shackled to a wall? There would never have been a way to have kept Dorothy from turning you and being able to see into your mind," Wufei interrupted.

Duo was quiet for a while, wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his shirt. "What about you, Heero?" he asked finally, his expression guarded.

"What about me?"

"When you're...one of them, can you smell the presence of another on someone close to you?"

Both Heero and Wufei shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, that was how I had known Wufei had been with you back when I was trying to kill him."

"So then it wasn't my imagination last night."

The unease spiked up dramatically. Wufei cleared his throat lightly and tried to ignore the delicate red blush creeping up his cheeks. Heero leaned forward as his hands went back through his hair. "I can explain-"

"What's there to explain?" Duo raised an eyebrow, staying as calmly neutral as he had before. Then he cracked a crooked grin. "Wufei and I had been doing the 'if only he wasn't a vampire' discussion for months now. I'm just miffed that I wasn't there to watch."

Just having taken a sip out of his mug at that statement, Wufei choked and nearly sprayed his tea all over Heero's face. "S- say what!" he gasped.

"My sentiments exactly," Heero replied, giving Wufei a slightly amused look. "When were you going to tell me that you and Duo 'discussed' making your twosome into a threesome?"

Wufei mouthed soundlessly, looking incredibly like a fish out of water.

Duo smiled tiredly. "Can we go home?" he asked, breaking the lightened mood. "I want a long, hot shower and clean clothes before we really dive head first into this emotional mess."

"Now would probably be good, since I'm sure Quatre and Trowa will probably be at Irea's all day," Wufei agreed, regaining proper use of his vocal functions.

"Let's go."

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